Page 364 - A Comprehensive Guide to Solar Energy Systems

Chapter 18 • Thin Film Photovoltaics 369

18.6 Conclusions

Thin film PV has clearly demonstrated an excellent potential for cost effective generation
of solar electricity, especially using CdTe technology. It is anticipated that a mix of c-Si and
thin film PV technologies will cater the market needs in near to mid-term future, followed
by the dominance of thin film and other PV technologies in long term. The a-Si technol-
ogy has suffered a setback mainly because of the stagnancy and the low efficiency figures
arising from the intrinsic light dependent degradation issues. Thin film PV industries
are growing fast however, there are several issues such as reducing the gap between lab
efficiency and larger area industrial production efficiency. This is achievable with the de-
sign of better equipment with in situ diagnostics. Nonavailability of standard deposition
system for thin film PV has been a problem so effort is needed to develop large area equip-
ment suitable for thin film PV. For lower cost, high throughput and yield efforts are needed
that require further simplification and increased robustness of the process and device
structures.
Further improvements in the stability of device structure and still higher efficiencies
(greater than 25%) along with even thinner layers would see the way forward for mass thin
film productions.
The cost reduction of modules aimed below $0.3/W by CdTe and c-si technologies have
brought about a revolution but the Balance of System (BOS) costs viz. battery storage,
inverter and electronic component costs which determine the overall cost of electricity,
require drastic improvements for further success of solar technologies.

References

[1] meillaud F, Boccard m, Bugnon G, et al: Recent advances and remaining challenges in thin-film sili-
con photovoltaic technology, Mater Today 18(7):378–384, 2015.
[2] national Renewable energy Laboratory (nReL) – national Center for Photovoltaics: ‘Research Cell
Record efficiency Chart’. Available from: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/images/efficiency-chart.
png.
[3] Kojima A, Teshima K, shirai y, miyasaka T: organometal halide perovskites as visible-light sensitizers
for photovoltaic cells, J Am Chem Soc 131(17):6050–6051, 2009.
[4] Zhou y, Zhu K: Perovskite solar cells shine in the “Valley of the sun”, ACS Energy Lett 1(1):64–67, 2016.
[5] Kumar mh, yantara n, dharani s, et al: Flexible, low-temperature, solution processed Zno-based
perovskite solid state solar cells, Chem Commun 49(94):11089, 2013.
[6] docampo P, Ball Jm, darwich m, eperon Ge, snaith hJ: efficient organometal trihalide perovskite
planar-heterojunction solar cells on flexible polymer substrates, Nat Commun:4, 2013.
[7] Wang hP, Lin Ty, hsu CW, et al: Realizing high-efficiency omnidirectional n-type si solar cells via the
hierarchical architecture concept with radial junctions, ACS Nano 7(10):9325–9335, 2013.
[8] Luque A, hegedus s: Handbook of photovoltaic science, John Wiley & sons Ltd, 2003.
[9] Luque A, hegedus s. handbook of Photovoltaic science and engineering; 2011.
[10] Lee Td, ebong A: Thin film solar technologies- a review, 2015 12th int Conf high-Capacity opt net-
works enabling/emerging Technol:33–42, 2015.