The future of crystalline silicon solar cells

If the best indicator of the future is the past, there may be limited changes in photovoltaic manufacturing over the coming 20 years apart from higher production volumes, lower costs and shifts to thinner silicon wafers and higher efficiency cell processing sequences. If the above premise is rejected, the future becomes more exciting, with silicon substrates possibly being used for high-efficiency, low-cost tandem cell designs and polycrystalline silicon thin films emerging to fill the void left by apparent deficiencies in the long-trm with existing thin-film alternatives. This paper gives a personal view of issues relevant to crystalline silicon solar cells over the 2000-2020 timeframe, with some speculation for the period to 2050. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.