Polymer solar cells are a type of flexible solar cell. They can come in many forms including: organic solar cell (also called plastic solar cell), or organic chemistry photovoltaic cell that produce electricity from sunlight using polymers. There are also other types of more stable thin-film semiconductors that can be deposited on different types of polymers to create solar cells. This technology is relatively new, being actively researched by universities, national laboratories and several companies around the world.

Currently, commercial solar cells are made from a refined, highly purified silicon crystal, similar to the material used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and computer chips (wafer silicon). The high cost of these silicon solar cells, and their complex production process has generated interest in developing alternative photovoltaic technologies.

Compared to silicon-based devices, polymer solar cells are lightweight (which is important for small autonomous sensors), potentially disposable and inexpensive to fabricate (sometimes using printed electronics), flexible, customizable on the molecular level, and have lower potential for negative environmental impact. The disadvantages of polymer solar cells are also serious: they offer about 1/3 of the efficiency of hard materials, and they are relatively unstable toward photochemical degradation. For these reasons, despite continuing advances in semiconducting polymers, the vast majority of solar cells rely on inorganic materials.