Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “Flexible, Printed and Thin Film Batteries 2016-2026: Technologies, Markets, Players” report to their offering. The market is projected to grow to become a $471 million industry in 2026 from a small market base today.
This is a fast-changing industry. The technology is in a state of rapid progress as new designs, methods and modified chemistries are frequently announced. The business landscape is also being dramatically altered as many companies are now gearing up to progress their lab scale technologies into mass production. These are exciting years for this emerging technology.
Wearable technology and electronic textiles are major growth areas for thin film and flexible batteries. Conventional secondary batteries may meet the energy requirements of wearable devices, but they struggle to achieve flexibility, thinness and light weight. These new market requirements open up the space for energy storage solutions with novel form factors. Indeed, the majority of thin film battery companies tell us that they have ongoing projects in the wearable technology field. High-energy thin film batteries have the highest potential here, followed by printed rechargeable zinc batteries, provided the latter can improve.
The healthcare sector is also a promising target market. Skin patches using printed batteries are already a commercial reality while the author anticipates that the market for disposable medical devices requiring micro-power batteries will also expand. This is a hot space as the number of skin patch companies is rapidly rising.
