What Is a Solar Film?

You probably know that installing solar panels on your home or business is a cost-effective and eco-friendly choice, but have you considered solar films? Solar films have all the advantages of solar panels, but they’re more flexible and can be installed in many places where rigid glass panels can’t go. In the following blog post, we’ll go over what exactly solar films are and what makes them so versatile.

Flexible, Lightweight & Shatterproof

At Diversa Smart Energy, our solar films are powerful, lightweight and shatterproof solar cells. These cells are based on the most efficient thin-film technology available today.

Solar film is made up of photovoltaic material—material that converts sunlight into electrical energy—built onto a substrate in several thin layers. Solar films are more flexible than solar panels because they’re made with photovoltaic materials that have a higher light-absorbing efficiency, which means a much thinner metal or plastic substrate can be used.

Diversa’s solar films are made using copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar technology. The thin-film solar cells are produced by depositing a thin layer of copper, indium, gallium and selenide onto high-grade stainless steel foil. Once the cell structure is deposited onto the foil, special conductive oxides are applied, and a specialized plastic-cell interconnect mesh-wire system is laminated to the cell. Special water barrier plastics are also used to protect the cells from water damage; the plastic back sheet contains an internal aluminum film to prevent water from eroding the CIGS cells.

Because of the advanced CIGS technology that they use, our solar films are the highest efficiency thin-film modules in production today, providing the highest power density per kilogram in a commercially available solar module. These solar films have aperture efficiency ratings (how much sunlight is converted into electrical energy per kilogram of silicon) as high as 17%, with efficiencies of up to 20% expected in the future.

Why Choose Solar Film?
There are many benefits to using solar films. Because they’re so lightweight, durable and flexible, they can be installed on vehicles, curved surfaces and structures like carports, floating reservoir covers and mobile devices. Plus, they’re easier and cheaper to install than solar panels. To learn more about the applications of solar films, visit our website.

AtDiversa Smart Energy, we’re proud to install cutting-edge solar panels and solar films on Toronto homes and businesses that help our customers save money while helping the environment. To learn more, contact us today.