What are thin-film solar panels?

Thin-film solar panels are lightweight and flexible, and thus can be applied in the areas where traditional solar panels cannot be installed. These solar cells contain a significantly lesser quantity of silicon, and therefore emissions during their production are also quite low as compared to the production of standard solar panels.

What is the efficiency of thin-film solar modules?

The level of efficiency of thin-film modules is between 6 and 10%. It means for these solar cells to achieve the same performance as the crystalline modules, thin-film modules need to be installed in a comparatively larger area. The performance of thin-film solar modules is reduced due to degradation.

What materials are used to make thin-film solar panels?

The manufacturing process depends on various PV substances such as amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and cadmium telluride (CdTe). Unlike the conventional solar panels, thin-film solar panels do rely on quality molten silicon ingots for production. The following are the leading manufacturers of thin-film PV:

Can thin-film solar cells reduce the cost of photovoltaic systems?

One of the main obstacles that came in the way of large-scale production and expansion of photovoltaic (PV) systems has been the steep price of the solar cell modules. Later, researchers developed one of the solutions to reduce this cost is by creating thin-film solar cells.

How much does a thin-film solar cell cost?

Keeping this issue in mind, manufacturers have been putting in efforts to reduce costs. The current cost of the thin-film solar cells ranges from $0.50 to $1.00/watt. Many manufacturers have set a target to bring down the cost under $0.70/watt of peak power.

What is the market share of thin-film solar cells?

Despite all these testing and development, the market share of thin-film cells has not gone beyond 20 percent during the last two decades and has dipped to about 9 percent in recent years considering the worldwide installations of photovoltaic solar cells.