They are rigid solar panels mounted on Kapton tape. There's a fan-fold mechanism to store them for transport - exactly like old tractor-feed printer paper. The

They are rigid solar panels mounted on Kapton tape. There's a fan-fold mechanism to store them for transport - exactly like old tractor-feed printer paper. They can fold them back up, and they are an in-space replaceable component but there's no reason to ever do that. It was done once to move the P6 truss from a temporary position on top of the station to the end of the wing, but this resulted in (repairable) damage to the solar array. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTcodL0awg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTcodL0awg is a good view of the retraction.