Photovoltaics: The Renewable Energy Revolution Leading the Semiconductor Industry

Abstract

The photovoltaic industry has maintained a rapid growth rate of more than 46% over the last 15 years. At the same time, the price of PV modules have continuously decreased to a point where PV is now at grid parity on the customer side of the meter in geographic areas with high incentives combined with high solar irradiation or high electricity price. The rapid growth rate of the PV industry is expected to continue and even accelerate as the regions with grid parity spread to more parts of the developed world. This is due to a combined reduction in the price of PV modules and an increase in the price electricity. Among all the different PV technologies, crystalline silicon solar cells have maintained a strong dominance of more than 82.5%. Thanks to extensive studies of silicon material properties, mechanisms of carrier recombination and the development of ultra-clean processing, the efficiency of silicon solar cells have reached more than 22% in large volume production and 25% in laboratory, and is approaching the theoretical maximum efficiency of silicon cells of about 29%.