High efficiency of solar cells and its effect on cost reduction

Research and development programs around the world aim at drastic improvements of crystalline solar cell efficiencies in order to achieve performances close to the theoretical limit. In real solar cell arrays a large portion of the production and installation costs is proportional to the area required and hence inverse proportional to the efficiency of the array. Solar cells with considerable higher efficiency even at higher production costs reduce the costs of the array considerably. For solar cells based on crystalline silicon the main routes for achieving high efficiencies are outlined. (ISE)