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).
Material quality, process technologies, and solar cell architectures have improved significantly in recent past decades, and solar cell efficiencies are now approaching 27%, thus close to the theoretical limit. However, challenges remain in several aspects, such as increasing the production yield, stability, reliability, cost, and sustainability.
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.
The packaging industry’s lean manufacturing methodology can be applied directly to solar module assembly. Second-generation solar cell, also known as thin-film solar cell (TFSC) or thin-film photovoltaic cell (TFPV) , is made by depositing one or more thin layers (thin films) of photovoltaic material on a substrate.
Solar PV cell materials of different generations have been compared on the basis of their methods of manufacturing, characteristics, band gap and efficiency of photoelectric conversion.
The different physical principles are associated with the operation of different solar PV cells. However, the all well performing solar PV cells possess similar I-V characteristics and can be compared or characterized with each other on behalf of four factors viz. VOC, ISC, FF and PCE. 5. Comparative analysis of solar PV cell materials