Current Developments and the Future of Photovoltaic Technologies

The global PV market experienced consistent growth in the last decades that can well be called unparalleled. Since 1992 it is achieving an average annual growth rate above 30%!

PV technology will continue to grow in energy conversion efficiency at ever-falling cost. We started with the old industry standard PV technology, based on crystalline Si wafers, and characterized by an Al backsurface contact on a p-Si wafer. About 10 years ago this was replaced by Passivated Emitter and Rear Contact technology (PERC), where the wafer backside is covered by a well-passivating layer. Now we are at the brink of the third generation of c-Si PV technologies. There are fundamentally two third-generation technologies available, called TOPCON, because of the ultrathin tunneling oxide backside, and heterojunction, HjT, based on doped amorphous Si on both sides of the wafer. These technologies hold promise to increase solar energy conversion efficiencies towards 27%.

Beyond this, fourth-generation Si PV technologies will be needed, employing tandem structures with different band gaps, such as Perovskite/Si or compound semiconductor/Si tandems. These structures are under development in many laboratories worldwide. This decade will show which will be the winning technologies in the global multi-Terawatt market that we will experience at the end of this decade!

We will discuss the current and emerging PV technology generations, and the growing markets for PV cells and modules.

Speaker: Eicke Weber, European Solar Manufacturing Council

Room 3108