Dublin, Oct. 8, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bmq9xx/nextgeneration)
has announced the addition of the "Next-Generation
Flexible Thin-film Solar Cell Technology and Market Forecast
(2009-2020)" report to their offering.
As cost reduction and product diversification are becoming
important issues in the PV industry, flexible solar cells are
drawing a lot of attention. Since most of conventional solar cells
are formed on hard substrates such as wafers or glass, they are
deformed or broken when forces are applied. However, flexible solar
cells, drawing attention as one of next-generation solar cells, are
bendable or twistable. Thus, thin-film solar cells are mainly used
for flexibility. They are transformable according to circumstances,
light-weight, and highly portable.
Because of these advantages, flexible solar cells are expected to
be applied for various purposes, since they are enough to compete
with other commercially available solar cells, provided that
flexible substrates are developed first, and optimized technologies
for the substrates are developed. Current thin-film solar cells
using flexible substrates (metal foil, and plastic) are under
disadvantages in terms of cost reduction due to the complex
manufacturing process and inefficient aspects of the
mass-production process. Thus, intensive research and investment
are required to reduce the manufacturing costs.
Although United Solar Ovonic (USA) had took the lead with a-Si
solar cells until 2009 in the flexible solar cell market, as new
CIGS and other flexible solar cell manufacturers began to the
market, the market began to grow in earnest from 2010. Although
there has been a sharp decrease in production due to the global
economic depression and oversupply of solar cells from 2011, it is
expected that the market will begin grow from 2013 and be
reinstated to the former level in 2014. After that, the market is
expected to grow with a very high growth rate, reaching 1.6GW in
production in 2020.
This report is dedicated to examining flexible thin-film
solar cell technologies and market trends, embracing
- Overview of flexible thin-film solar cells
- Research trend of flexible thin-film solar cell research institutes and companies
- Flexible thin-film solar cell technology issues and new technology trends
- Flexible thin-film solar cell market forecast
- Flexible thin-film solar cell substrate and device technologies
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/bmq9xx/nextgeneration
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