Solar cells are typically made from silicon crystals. This is the same material used in computer semiconductors and chips. Crystalline silicon is a somewhat scarce commodity because of the huge demand. Alternative materials or perhaps less use of scarce materials will go a very long way to increasing the feasibility of solar power. This becomes even more important when you consider the ideal future, which for me would include every roof surface having a solar panel array. Fortunately, Power Film has created solar cells that use a minimal account of silicon. This cell is incredibly thin, using 2 micrometer thick non crystalline silicon wavers. This allows the Power Film cell to be mounted on flexible plastic, curved surfaces and other materials. It still has a ways to go as the power yield is about half of the normal crystalline silicon panels. Also the performance decreases over time. This will have to be fixed

via - UberGizmo

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