In an attempt to promote solar energy utilization, this comprehensive review highlights the trends and advances of various PV cell technologies. The feasibility of PV cell technologies is accomplished by extending the discussion on generations of PV technology, PV building materials, efficiency, stability, cost analysis, and performance.
To date, crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV cells dominate large-scale electricity generation because of mass production, reduced prices, easy installation, and low maintenance cost , .
The China-based PV manufacturing industry has been in a massive capacity expansion phase since 2019. This intensified in the first quarter of 2020, but had eased off throughout the year and cumulative figures are jaw dropping, leading to real fears of overcapacity in 2021.
Therefore, current PV cell technologies should be analyzed to achieve high reliability, performance, and minimum manufacturing cost. Recently, the PV-based industries are experiencing remarkable growth because of increased interest in green energy, PV cost reduction, and efficiency enhancement.
The existence of any established PV technology, which is in mass production and market entry of any new PV technology, which are proposed and under investigation, largely depend on efficiency, stability, cost, environment friendliness of constituent materials, and overall performance of a particular cell technology.
The event in 2023 was a sell out success and 2024 will once again gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing in the U.S. out to 2030 and beyond.