Korean Researchers Develop Transformable Solar Panel That Can Be Stretched Like Paper

New solar power technology has been developed that can be customized to fit the curved outer walls and protruding structures of buildings.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology announced that it has developed solar power technology capable of freely changing shape to suit the installation environment while maintaining power generation performance.

Existing technologies mostly feature flat designs, making them difficult to modify, and even flexible structures have suffered from broken electrical connections.

To solve this problem, the research team combined ultra-thin silver nanowires with liquid-like, flexible indium and gallium metals to develop electrodes that maintain electrical connectivity even when their shape changes.

[Lee Pil-lip / Principal Researcher, Korea Institute of Science and Technology: "We have created electrodes that suffer no damage even against bending or pulling forces."]

While some newly constructed buildings incorporate curved solar panels into their initial designs, applying them to already completed buildings has been difficult.

However, using the newly developed solar cell technology by the researchers offers the advantage of being applicable to the curved sections and dome-shaped surfaces of existing architecture.

The newly developed solar panel showed almost no change in power generation performance even at a 500% strain rate, and in structures where cells were densely arranged in curved areas, the solar cell surface area secured up to 225% compared to flat installation areas.

In addition to securing flexibility, the research team plans to develop materials equipped with durability against strong winds, rainstorms, and fires, similar to conventional solar panels.

This solar cell technology, which can be modified like origami, aims for commercialization as early as next year.

(Reported by Seo Dong-gyun | Produced by Lee Se-young | Video by Park Na-young | Photo courtesy of Korea Institute of Science and Technology | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.