Flexible Solar Cells
Authors :- Patil S., Jani R., Purabiarao N., Desai A., Desai I., Bhargava K.
Publication :- Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design, Wiley, 2022
Thin-film solar cells have gone through extensive research in recent past and are expected to grow further due to rising demand of energy and global warming. Although the thin-film solar cells have traditionally been fabricated on rigid and flat substrates called as the rigid solar cells, these rigid solar cells are not suitable for their installation on curvilinear surfaces such as the outer body of vehicle, roof of train coach, human body, etc. But generally, the flexibility is achieved at the expense of degrading performance and stability of solar cells which has been the severe bottleneck for their commercialization. This chapter presents an overview of the flexible solar cell technology. The important aspects covered in this chapter are the requirement of flexible solar cells, semiconductor and substrate materials required for fabrication, popular techniques for material and cell characterization, issues, and applications.