Ultra-Thin Solar Panels - Coming to a Backpack Near You

[Rimmer]

Ultra-Thin Solar: Coming to a Backpack Near You

 

 

 

Solar tech isn’t just heavy glass panels on rooftops anymore — ultra-thin solar is here, and it’s getting wild.

We’re talking paper-thin, bend-around-a-pipe panels made from CIGS, organics, and even perovskites. Some are already powering RVs, boats, tents and gadgets. Others look like stickers you slap on walls, jackets, or drones.

 

The good: lightweight, flexible, portable, and they work where rigid panels can’t.
The catch: most are less efficient than traditional silicon and can wear out faster, though new tandem tech might fix that.

 

Give it a few years and “solar film” could be as normal as duct tape. Question is — would you trust a power source you can roll up and stick in your pocket?

[Photoguy21]

3 minutes ago, Rimmer said:

Ultra-Thin Solar: Coming to a Backpack Near You

 

 

 

Solar tech isn’t just heavy glass panels on rooftops anymore — ultra-thin solar is here, and it’s getting wild.

We’re talking paper-thin, bend-around-a-pipe panels made from CIGS, organics, and even perovskites. Some are already powering RVs, boats, tents and gadgets. Others look like stickers you slap on walls, jackets, or drones.

 

The good: lightweight, flexible, portable, and they work where rigid panels can’t.
The catch: most are less efficient than traditional silicon and can wear out faster, though new tandem tech might fix that.

 

Give it a few years and “solar film” could be as normal as duct tape. Question is — would you trust a power source you can roll up and stick in your pocket?

Rimmer you never came back for breakfast like you said. You did once but several times made the statement.

[Peter Crow]

I am looking for panels that can survive the impact of a Cambodian BM.21rocket.  A volley of those landed less than a Km away from our home. 

 

Maybe the Solar farm project will be postponed indefinitely.. Since September 202I am getting near a total of 5 Million baht I won't spend in Thailand, EV, holidays, and now any new home improvement.

[Rimmer]

27 minutes ago, Photoguy21 said:

Rimmer you never came back for breakfast like you said. You did once but several times made the statement.

 

Working on it 😄

[Andrew Dwyer]

They covered the roof of the new Toyota Prius with something similar but the returns were pitiful, plus you have to let your car sit in the sunshine as much as possible.

Save $1000 a year but spend $2000 on a respray every year 😜

[Rimmer]

Here is some more about ultra thin panels:

What “ultra-thin” solar means

“Ultra-thin” covers several technologies that make photovoltaic (PV) devices much thinner and lighter than conventional glass-framed crystalline silicon modules. That includes thin-film chemistries (CIGS, CdTe, amorphous silicon), organic photovoltaics (OPV / “solar film”), and rapidly advancing perovskite-based cells — sometimes made as flexible sheets or even sticker-like films that can be applied to surfaces. These can be microns to fractions of a millimeter thick, and are built on plastic or flexible substrates rather than glass. MIT NewsHeliatek GmbH

In commercial use today

• Flexible CIGS and thin-film modules are already sold for RVs, boats, tents and curved surfaces — they’re lightweight and more impact-resistant than glass modules, though usually a bit less efficient per area than rigid silicon panels. (You’ll find retail flexible CIGS/ thin-film panels marketed for portable/off-grid use.) The Home DepotAmazon

• Organic solar films (OPV) are commercially available for building-integrated uses where low weight and conformability matter — they can be stuck on curved façades or temporary structures. Heliatek is a prime example of a company shipping certified organic solar film products. Heliatek GmbH

Where ultra-thin tech is already winning practical niches

• Wearables and electronics: thin cells laminated onto textiles or devices for low-power charging.

• Portable power: chargers, roll-up panels for camping and disaster relief.

• BIPV (lightweight building wraps, awnings, canopies) where aesthetics, weight or flexibility are priorities.

• Weight-sensitive transport: drones, some vehicle prototypes, and aerospace demonstrators where watts per kilogram matter more than watts per square metre. MIT Newssolarfabric.com

Cutting-edge and under development

• Perovskite devices: perovskite PV has gone from tiny lab cells to devices with rapidly improving efficiency. Perovskites are attractive for ultra-thin flexible cells because they can be deposited in very thin films and combined into tandems (e.g., perovskite + silicon or perovskite + CIGS) to push overall efficiency beyond single-junction limits. However, long-term stability and scaling manufacturing are still active research and commercialization hurdles. ScienceDirectAxios

• Tandem cells & record efficiencies: industrial R&D has recently set new efficiency records for tandem approaches (silicon-perovskite tandems hitting high 30s% in lab/industry reports). These advances point toward higher power from thinner stacks, but moving lab records to reliable, large-area, thin flexible products takes more development. Longiperovskite-info.com

• Ultrathin “sticker” cells: academic groups have demonstrated paper-thin cells that can be laminated to arbitrary surfaces and boast excellent power-per-weight figures, useful for applications where mass is the limiting factor (e.g., UAVs, portable kits). Scaling and durability testing remain the next steps before broad roll-out. MIT News

Key tradeoffs and challenges

• Efficiency vs area: ultra-thin/flexible cells typically have lower efficiency per square metre than top commercial crystalline silicon modules, so they need more area for the same power (unless tandem tech closes the gap). SunSave

• Durability & lifetime: flexible substrates and some new chemistries (especially perovskites and organics) can show faster degradation under heat, moisture, and UV unless properly encapsulated. Longevity is the main commercialization hurdle for many lab breakthroughs. ScienceDirect

• Manufacturing scale: many ultra-thin advances are proven on small lab samples; scaling to large-area roll-to-roll manufacturing while keeping yields and stability is nontrivial. Wiley Online Library

Short outlook (what to expect next 2–7 years)

• More commercial flexible CIGS / OPV products for niche, weight-sensitive, and aesthetic uses will continue to roll out. The Home DepotHeliatek GmbH

• Perovskite and tandem technologies are likely to transition from records and pilots toward early commercial deployments (mostly in tandem with silicon initially), bringing higher efficiency into thinner packages — but broad replacement of silicon will take longer due to reliability and scale-up needs. LongiAxios

• Expect product diversification: solar “film” stickers for retrofits, flexible arrays for transport/robotics, and improved portable panels with better power-to-weight ratios (useful for disaster response, expeditionary kits, and aerial platforms). MIT Newssolarfabric.com

Ultra-thin solar is already practical for many lightweight and flexible applications today (flexible CIGS, OPV films). The most exciting breakthroughs under development — perovskite thin films and tandem cells — promise big gains in efficiency and power-to-weight, but widespread adoption depends on solving stability and large-area manufacturing challenges. The Home DepotScienceDirectLongi