The cost of making and installing thin and flexible solar cells can be less than a dollar a watt, low enough to compete generally with fossil fuels, says Cal Tech professor Harry Atwater.

Two ways  to use high-efficiency solar cell materials in flexible cells, he suggests: deposit gallium arsenide on a rigid surface, then peel it off to make a flexible solar cell; and grow crystalline silicon in the form of arrays of wires embedded in polymers.