2.4.

4 Flexible and curved modules

Flexible PV cells are a relatively new product that allows attractive building inte-
grated options.
Curved modules with a minimum radius of 0.9m can be fabricated from crystalline
PV cells by embedding the cells between curved sheets or curving finished mod-
ules. Thin-film modules are permanently flexible and rollable when deposited onto
malleable substrates.
Flexible and curved modules are not laminated in hard glass but on a versatile mate-
rial, e.g. metal and synthetic foils, synthetic resin and glass textile membranes. This
is also made possible by new thin layer technologies. The flexible PV modules can be
quite light and have been used for arched construction elements, as awnings, flex-
ible roofing with integrated PV cells.
When thin-film amorphous silicon is deposited onto a substrate, the reverse of that
in Fig. 2.9, then metal or plastic sheeting can be used which are flexible. Such a sys-
tem can be rolled onto a standing seam metal roof (Fig. 2.22).
Crystalline cells can be laminated with acrylic plastic or Makrolon. The minimal
cold-bending radius for cell arrays of 10× 10cm is 350 times the thickness of the
strongest acrylic plastic sheet.
Very few curved glass applications exist incorporating PV cells. Wafer-type cells
cannot be easily bent as they fracture in a brittle manner. Often acrylic/ polycarbo-
nate plexi-glass is used to avoid the issues associated with glass bending. Curved
glass laminates incorporating wafer-type cells would be a bespoke and very costly
solution.
Thin-film cells are created by a deposition process, which requires a substrate with
a flat surface. Therefore, thin-film cells cannot be applied to bent glass. Applying
the film first and then bending the glass is also not possible because the cells would
get damaged during the glass bending process.
Flexible and curved PV cells can however be created by laminating thin-film PV cells
in to flexible substrates such as synthetic foils, synthetic resins, textile, mem-
branes, sheet metals, etc. The flexible PV modules can be light-weight and used for
arched construction elements, flexible roofing, etc (Fig. 2.22).
It should be noted that curved modules will have a reduced performance due to the
non-uniformity of the sunlight intensity over the module surface.

Fig. 2.22 Roll of flexible roofing PV using thin-film

amorphous silicon.
Photo courtesy: M.Art

2. PV BASICS 29