Cost Of Thin Film Vs Crystalline Solar Panels

Advantages of pv thin film.

Cost of thin film vs crystalline solar panels.

Market has seen a demand growth for pv thin film from 2002 2015 more than 60 annual rate. However thin film technology lags behind crystalline silicon technology in terms of efficiency and performance. Thin film solar panels are completely different from monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels. Abundant and efficient crystalline silicon solar cells have been around since the 1950s but thin film solar cells are the new kids set to become the medium of choice.

Mat dirjish may 16 2012. One technology you may have heard of is thin film solar which includes panels made from a variety of materials that tend to be more lightweight and flexibe than typical silicon panels. While thin film technology has an advantage over crystalline pv modules in terms of pricing crystalline silicon modules are rapidly closing the price gap as prices continue to decline. Like conventional solar panels amorphous solar panels are made from silicon but they are constructed in a different way.

Instead of being constructed from solid silicon wafers like mono or poly crystalline solar panels amorphous panels are made by depositing non crystalline silicon on a substrate like glass plastic or metal one layer of silicon on an amorphous solar panel can be as thin. Thin film technologies reduce the amount of active material in a cell. Crystalline monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar modules dominate the solar industry with thin film modules accounting for 5 of global solar installations across the globe. A roof with both mono and thin film solar panels.

If you ve got a moderately sized house then it might be a good idea to go for monocrystalline solar panels instead which will provide you with 4x the power of thin film panels while taking up the same amount of space. Since silicon solar panels only use one pane of glass thin film panels are approximately twice as heavy as crystalline silicon panels although they have a smaller ecological impact determined from life cycle analysis. Although cheap thin film solar panels take up a lot of space and may not be the best solution for household purposes. Mass production for pv thin films is much cheaper and that makes the manufacturing cost lower than crystalline based solar cells.