Fabrication of Photovoltaic Textiles
Source abstract
Abstract
Solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays are providing an increasing fraction of global electrical demand, with an accelerating rate of new installations. Most of these employ conventional glass-fronted panels, but this type of PV array does not satisfy applications that require a light-weight, flexible PV generator. An option discussed in this article is to consider textiles for such solar cell substrates. As explained in this review, combining the choice of PV cell type with the choice of textile offers alternative structures for flexible PV cells. In particular, the relative advantages and disadvantages are contrasted, either forming PV-coated fibres into a fabric, or coating an already formed fabric with the PV materials. It is shown that combining thin-film amorphous silicon PV technology and woven polyester fabric offers one solution to realizing flexible fabric PV cells, using well-understood coating methods from the textile and semiconductor industries. Finally a few applications are presented that are addressed by this approach.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability · solar cell performance optimization · Photovoltaic System Optimization Techniques
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Power Textiles Limited, Upland House, Ettrick Road, Selkirk TD7 5AJ, UK
School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK
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