Cost Of Thin Film Vs Crystalline Solar Panels

A roof with both mono and thin film solar panels.

Cost of thin film vs crystalline solar panels.

Most sandwich active material between two panes of glass. 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. They are solid black without the normal silicon cell outlines you see on the face of a crystalline solar panel. Like conventional solar panels amorphous solar panels are made from silicon but they are constructed in a different way.

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. Market has seen a demand growth for pv thin film from 2002 2015 more than 60 annual rate. Usually thin film solar panels are lightweight and flexible making them easy to install. However thin film technology lags behind crystalline silicon technology in terms of efficiency and performance.

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. 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. Crystalline monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar modules dominate the solar industry with thin film modules accounting for 5 of global solar installations across the globe. Although cheap thin film solar panels take up a lot of space and may not be the best solution for household purposes.

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. 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. Thin film solar panels are completely different from monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels. Advantages of pv thin film.