Photovoltaic solar electricity: state of the art and future prospects

We review here the technical progress made in the past several years in the area of single and polycrystalline thin film PV (photovoltaic) technologies based on Si, III-V, II-VI and I-III-VI/sub 2/ semiconductors. PV electricity is one of the most options identified for sustainable providing of future energy requirements of the world. At the moment PV market is growing rapidly by 30-40% each year like telecommunication and computers. PV production was 520 MW in 2002. Si and GaAs single crystalline solar cells performed high efficiency very closed to theoretically predicted maximum value. Single- and polycrystalline Si solar cells still remain the predominant PV technology at the present. The cost of these solar cells is rather high (US$ 3.5-4.5). Thin film PV was developed as a means of substantially reducing the cost of solar cells. Remarkable progress has been achieved in this field for recent years. CdTe and Cu(In, Ga)Se/sub 2/ thin film solar cells performed a record efficiencies of 16-17% and 18-19% respectively. These values are highest for thin film solar cells. The thermodynamic limit of the solar energy conversion to electricity is 93-95%. This goal can be achieved on thin film quantum well solar cells.