Photovoltaic Technology Trends Shaping the Future

Photovoltaics are an established though underutilized method for electricity generation. High costs and low conversion efficiencies have been the major bottlenecks in the development of the solar power to become a primary source of energy. Inorganic semi-conductor solar cells are well developed and are being deployed worldwide; however the high cost of their manufacture ultimately limits their widespread acceptance as a source of renewable energy. The high cost of PV is largely due to the fact that most current fabrication technology cannot easily be implemented in a high throughput or roll-to-roll fashion. As a result the through-put from a manufacturing facility is relatively low and thus the cost per unit produced is high. Presently the efficiency of Si-based cell has reached 24% but the current cost is still around $4/W. This relatively high cost is mainly due to the sophisticated and expensive production routes. It is estimated that in the near future the costs can go down to 1-1.5$/W which is still considerably higher than the target cost of 0.33$/W.