Crystalline silicon solar cells are today’s main photovoltaic technology, enabling the production of electricity with minimal carbon emissions and at an unprecedented low cost. This Review discusses the recent evolution of this technology, the present status of research and industrial development, and the near-future perspectives.
Except for niche applications (which still constitute a lot of opportunities), the status of crystalline silicon shows that a solar technology needs to go over 22% module efficiency at a cost below US$0.2 W −1 within the next 5 years to be competitive on the mass market.
The cost distribution of a crystalline silicon PV module is clearly dominated by material costs, especially by the costs of the silicon wafer. Therefore, besides improved production technology, the efficiency of the cells and modules is the main leverage to bring down the costs even more.
Crystalline polysilicon remains the dominant technology for PV modules, with a market share of more than 97%. Various different types of wafers and cells are used for crystalline polysilicon solar, with some more efficient than others.
The manufacturing process for crystalline silicon solar module can be split into 4 main steps (read more about the silicon supply chain): Mined quartz is purified from silicon dioxide into solar-grade silicon. There are many smaller steps to this process, including heating up the quartz in an electric arc furnace.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative Crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaics has long been considered energy intensive and costly. Over the past decades, spectacular improvements along the manufacturing chain have made c-Si a low-cost source of electricity that can no longer be ignored.