The future of crystalline silicon solar cells

✍ Scribed by Martin A. Green

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 208 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1062-7995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(200001/02)8:1<127::aid-pip311>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

If the best indicator of the future is the past, there may be limited changes in photovoltaic manufacturing over the coming 20 years apart from higher production volumes, lower costs and shifts to thinner silicon wafers and higher eciency cell processing sequences. If the above premise is rejected, the future becomes more exciting, with silicon substrates possibly being used for high-eciency, low-cost tandem cell designs and polycrystalline silicon thin ®lms emerging to ®ll the void left by apparent de®ciencies in the long-term with existing thin-®lm alternatives.

This paper gives a personal view of issues relevant to crystalline silicon solar cells over the 2000±2020 timeframe, with some speculation for the period to 2050.