There are two types of flexible solar panels that you’ll come across: thin-film and crystalline silicon.
Thin-film solar panels
Thin-film is a type of solar cell where the photovoltaic material is essentially printed onto a surface. This is very different from the more common crystalline silicon solar cells that are used in most solar panels. You can also look for energus for the best Sunman solar panels.
Flexibility is one of the main advantages of thin-film solar cells. Thin-film cells can be bent and even rolled. They can be placed on many different materials including glass, metal, and even fabrics. Because of this property, thin-film is sometimes used to make highly flexible, small solar panels for portable applications.
Crystalline silicon solar panels
The two types of solar cells on the market are polycrystalline and monocrystalline. With both, the cells are made by cutting wafers of silicon out of a block. The cells are wired together, usually in groups of 60 or 72 cells, to make a panel.
The individual wafers are thick enough that they aren’t flexible. But it turns out that if you cut the wafers thin enough, they become fairly flexible while retaining their photovoltaic properties.
The result is a solar cell that can bend at about a 30-degree angle. While this is less flexible than thin-film solar, it’s well suited for a lot of applications where you want the solar panel to conform to a curved surface, such as the roof of an RV.