IV Group Materials‐Based Solar Cells and Their Flexible Photovoltaic Technologies

Summary

Past decades have witnessed the evolution of solar cell technology in converting abundant solar energy into electricity by the photovoltaic effect and being regarded as a most promising solution for the energy dilemma. Thickness reduction of solar cells can not only reduce material consumption and costs, but also realize their flexibility. Herein, flexible solar cell technology has become the research hotspot recently since it is the promising energy solution in wearable devices, building photovoltaic integration and other fields. In this chapter, IV group materials based flexible solar cell technology progresses have been reviewed. High efficiency solar cells based on silicon, germanium and carbon are overviewed before introducing the fabrication schemes and concepts of respective flexible solar cells. And their failure mechanisms are analyzed through mechanics theoretical models and experiments. Various application examples have initially demonstrated the feasibility and potential of flexible solar cells. In the end, challenges and future research of interest are discussed as well.