Solar Energy ArticlesPlastic Solar Panel Technology In the last two decades, mankind has witnessed intensive research in solar panel technology. Various companies, in conjunction with the leading universities and innovation labs of the world have been making attempt to cause an improvement in the solar panel technology so that they could make their products marketable. In this article, we are going to have a look at the Plastic Solar Panel Technology that is developed by a company called Solarmer Energy Inc. Solarmer Energy Inc. is regarded as one of the innovators in the industry of solar panels. They have caused the development of the transparent, flexible solar panels that are based upon plastic and its derivatives. Thus this company has made a leap in generating renewable energy from the power of the sun. Solar panels, mainly due to the construction process and also the materials used in it, have a limited number of applications. However, the scenario is slightly altered by Solarmer Energy Inc. They have opened doors to whole lot of applications that is creeping in to use the solar panels that have been developed out of plastic. In the sector of harnessing renewable form of energy, silicon as an element failed to make a mark in the wide range of applications of solar panels. But in this case, the rest of the things are also addressed. Because now the manufacturing process is catered by the plastic as a raw material, these kinds of solar panels have the potential to reduce the cost at which solar panels used to be available in the market. Statistics speak for themselves. The cost of solar panel with this technology is capable of making the provision of solar panels at 12-15 cents per kWh and typically less than a dollar per Watt of power. All this makes us conclude that this technology of solar panels is par than any other that is momentarily available in the market. Mainly, the solar panels that are developed using Solarmer's plastic technology address costing issues in the following ways: Cost of raw material: Low. The grade of plastic is irrespective of the solar power throughput produced by the solar panels. This much more cost efficient than extraction of silicon and the associated processes. Material usage: Low. Plastics have extraordinary capability to absorb light energy. Hence we need to use only a thin film of plastic per unit production of a solar cell. Typically, only few micrometers thickness is more than sufficient. Manufacturing cost: Lower than silicon. Thin film plastic is to be printed on the solar cell substrate. This can be compared to printing cost of a newspaper which is too low. Also, the impact on the environment is minimal due to the low temperature fabrication technique used here. This means energy consumption is also low, this further reducing the overall solar panel cost in the market. Organic plastic is used for the purpose of this variant of solar cell. In terms of the dimensions too, the plastic solar panels are compact, light in weight and also find applications where flexibility is of utmost importance. Traditional solar cell just fails to address applications where flexibility requirement issue is present. Since a wide range of colors can be used in the plastic manufacturing process, solar cells are available in a variety of colors. Currently, solar panels using plastic technology mentioned above are entering the market. The technology behind it promises that the entry in the market and the rate at which the user acceptance will be there is something to look out for. In the future, plastic solar panels will promise to be of same or even better efficiency, and wipe out the market share of silicon solar panel industry that currently holds the market capitalization of 90%. This will also ease the integration of solar panels with the other devices that make up a photovoltaic system. Related articles
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