How Flexible Solar Panels Made History

How flexible solar panels made history, was an interesting process. These new products
brought many new uses to the alternative energy program. People no longer had to settle
for those large bulky things that were sitting on rooftops.

Rigid Design

Rigid design in solar panels is usually an expensive ordeal. It takes some degree of
skill to install and usually has to be placed on the roofs of houses. It also can take
several years to recoup the cost of the installation. Also, many people cannot afford
the price of the installation.

Supple Design

The new supple and bendable design is an important breakthrough in technology. No longer
does this type of product have to be terribly expensive. Not only that, but it opens
up a great deal more uses for free energy. In the military, soldiers can carry their
own portable power source on their backpacks. This can very important for things like
communications in the field. It may also be very important for other portable items
that require power.

How They are Manufactured

The new supple and portable products are manufactured in a manner that is similar to
their rigid thin film counterparts. They work on a system called photovoltaic energy.
In other words, energy is received from sunlight and turned into electricity. In order
for this to happen, you need several things.

In the production process, several photovoltaic materials are placed upon a substrate.
A substrate is a sold material used for stacking one layer of material upon another.
With rigid products, the substrate is hard or rigid. With flexible products, the substrate
is supple.

The first layer is the substrate, followed by a semiconductor layer with ohmic contacts.
Ohmic contacts serve to make the area an integrated circuit. The next layer is an absorber
layer made of another semiconductor. This helps to let light into the circuit. After that,
comes the anti-reflection coating, and it is followed by the transparent conductor coating.

All of these materials work together, to form an electric circuit. The power from this circuit
comes from the rays of the sun. Inside the panel, sunlight atoms become unbalanced ions. This
means that electrons are moving from one surface to another, to balance themselves out.

This electron movement is called electricity. It flows from the power source, to your appliance,
and back to a different section of the power source. Once it returns, it is neutralized, and
sunlight once again makes it unbalanced. The process repeats itself over and over. You can see
a similar process with a comb and a piece of paper. Run the comb through your hair, and watch
the electrons transfer to the aper.

Summary

Perhaps you wondered how flexible solar panels made history. By using supple substrate or support
material, the solid products became supple and worked for many more uses. It also helped to lower
the price of renewable energy from the sun.

Flexible Solar Panels History

How Flexible Solar Panels Made History: