Ultra-flexible high efficiency photovoltaics - c-Si

The modern Military has an ever increasing need for power, in particular light weight portable power with high power densities and decreased deployed foot print. Currently packable panels are made from low efficiency light weight Amorphous Silicon or carbon fiber backed crystalline silicon. The weakness of the amorphous silicon technology resides in the power conversion efficiency (watts per unit area), while the carbon fiber backed crystalline silicon cells lack field durability and flexibility. The solution to this problem is to take the benefits of the two different technologies and combine them to produce a solar fabric that has high power conversion and ultra flexibility.