The photovoltaic sector is now led by silicon solar cells because of their well-established technology and relatively high efficiency. Currently, industrially made silicon solar modules have an efficiency between 16% and 22% (Anon (2023b)).
However, challenges remain in several aspects, such as increasing the production yield, stability, reliability, cost, and sustainability. In this paper, we present an overview of the silicon solar cell value chain (from silicon feedstock production to ingots and solar cell processing).
We discuss the major challenges in silicon ingot production for solar applications, particularly optimizing production yield, reducing costs, and improving efficiency to meet the continued high demand for solar cells. We review solar cell technology developments in recent years and the new trends.
Until now, plasmonic effects have been investigated in almost all kinds of solar cells, such as crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based solar cells , amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells [12, 16], GaAs solar cells , CdSe solar cells , organic solar cells [37, 38], and perovskite solar cells .
Nature Energy 8, 783–784 (2023) Cite this article Silicon heterojunction solar cells represent a promising photovoltaic approach, yet low short-circuit currents limit their power conversion efficiency.
A solar cell with a nc-Si shell of 80 nm in thickness and 225 nm in outer radius could yield an efficiency of 8.1%, which is comparable to that of a flat solar cell with an active layer thickness of 1.5 μm. This review provides a snapshot of the exciting development of nanophotonic silicon solar cells.