A review of performance of Silicon based Solar Cells.

Abstract

Solar energy is one of the common alternatives for hydro-power. It is converted into electricity using a range of photovoltaic (PV) technologies but silicon-based technologies dominate the PV market, due to the long-term stability and well-established technology of silicon solar cell technology. Silicon-based solar cells have been in production for a longtime ever since the development of the first p-n junction in 1950s. The trend of performance of silicon-based solar cell technologies has been on a steady uptrend in the past 10 years, with the production of crystalline silicon solar cells such as PERC, IBC, HIT and HBC from major PV companies. These solar cell structures exhibit improved performance and have a greater light conversion efficiency. This report gives a background about silicon-based solar cells, covers a review of the performance of solar cell structures with improved light conversion efficiency and the factors, on a general basis, affecting the performance of silicon-based solar cell technologies.