Existing solar panels are rather large and cumbersome, making them difficult to set up in certain situations. The ideal solution would be some type of solar film that is light, versatile, and cost-effective. One company based in the United Kingdom, Power Roll, has been working on this exact concept since 2012. It recently announced that it is now one step closer to producing an affordable and scalable solar film device due to its new design.
How The Groundbreaking Solar Film Works
The company has been dedicating its time and energy to embossing microgroove structures within a plastic substrate. The result is comparable to a credit card hologram. One square meter of substrate contains 500,000 micorgroove structures, which are coated in conductive materials and photo-sensitive ink. The printed rolls are then wrapped in layers of encapsulation film for stability and durability. This is all achieved using the roll-to-roll process, which involves embossing or coating a material continuously fed from one roller to the other. This process is efficient and cheap, and the product uses widely available perovskite as a key material in its solar cells.
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While Power Roll has been at this game for a while, they have recently made further improvements that bring this concept closer to commercial reality. Working along with University of Sheffield researchers, the team developed a new microgroove structure featuring a back-contact format. With the back-contact format, all of the solar cell’s electrical contacts are located on the back instead of the front of the solar film. This allows for a more efficient and cost-effective method of energy generation. A Hard X-ray nanoprobe microscope was also used to analyze the composition and structure of the solar cells to check for potential defects.
Benefits of the New Solar Film Design
This new design allows sunlight to be directly absorbed by the perovskite without needing to pass through the conductive layering first. This means that they no longer need expensive materials such as indium, which significantly brings down production costs. The biggest benefit of this new design is that it makes the product both light and easy to apply. This makes it possible to install the solar film on all different types of surfaces, such as non-load-bearing roofs. You can also easily transport it to areas without many electrical options. There are plenty of places on buildings that would previously have been unsuitable for solar panel installation.
However, this new design completely opens up possibilities, making many surfaces potential places to add the solar film. The team intends to scale up the manufacturing process as soon as possible. Their next step is to explore the employment of X-ray microscopy to better understand how the solar film will perform and how long it can maintain stability. In October of 2024, they had already managed to raise $5.4 million in funding for the further development of its manufacturing plant. The company anticipates that it will produce enough of the solar film to generate 1 GW in the very near future.
The Bottom Line
Power Roll‘s unique solar film represents a significant advancement in renewable energy technology. This innovative approach has the potential to make solar energy available in previously inaccessible areas. There are numerous potential uses, ranging from remote areas that don’t have a conventional power supply to placement on lightweight roofing. With more research, improved stability, and increased manufacturing, this solar film could be the key to enabling clean, inexpensive power for a much larger population. The future of solar energy seems to be flatter, lighter, and more flexible.
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