The main thing about a single crystal, polycrystalline or Sunpower solar panel is the cell inside, which may be a little thinner than a human hair. In order to protect the battery inside, surface materials such as glass, ETFE and PET are generally used for lamination and encapsulation. However, it can generally be called flexible solar panels, and the surface material is generally ETFE and PET, first of all, they have good light transmittance, which can ensure that the solar panels receive sunlight, so that they can generate electricity normally. Secondly, ETFE and PET can maintain their original toughness after lamination.

Generally, the choice of flexible solar panels will have certain requirements for bending. Flexible solar panels generally do not use single crystals and polycrystals, because these two types of solar cells are too brittle, generally used or improperly placed, easy to cause internal fragmentation, resulting in insufficient power or no power generation.

There is also a type of flexible solar panel that is not common on the market now, called thin film solar panels, which use a conventional silicon wafer -CIGS. The obstacle to such flexible solar panels is that they are much less efficient than rigid panels. Today's average rigid solar panel has an efficiency of about 16-20%. However, thin-film flexible solar panels are only 7-15% efficient, which means you need more flexible panels to generate the same amount of power as rigid panels.

Flexible solar panels may not be suitable for rooftop energy production, but they are a good option for people who need a lightweight and portable power source. Flexible solar panels are durable and lightweight, making them ideal for small-scale, mobile applications such as RVS, boats, and other energy needs that do not require high power output. Compared with glass (rigid) solar panels, its weather resistance will be relatively weak, and glass (rigid) solar panels will have a longer service life.