High-efficiency Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells: A Review

Abstract

Solar energy is a clean renewable energy resource that can be converted to electricity with photovoltaic (PV) technology without environmental damage. Solar energy can be transformed to electricity using a range of technologies, but crystalline silicon (c-Si)-based PV technology dominates in the PV market due to the high efficiency, long-term stability, reliability, and second most abundant (27%) material. Recently, c-Si solar cells achieved an outstanding efficiency of 26.7% through silicon heterojunction technology combined with an interdigitated back contact structure. Most industries and researchers are attempting to improve the efficiency further to reach the silicon limit. The dominant position of crystalline silicon solar cell in large-area electricity production and industrialization motivated us to write this review paper. This review paper covers the key factors that affect the efficiency, such as structure, process optimization, cost reduction strategies. In addition, some promising cell structures, such as Passivated Emitter Rear Contact (PERC) solar cell, Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) solar cell, Heterojunction Intrinsic Thin Layer (HIT) solar cell, and Heterojunction Back Contact (HBC) solar cell, and their efficiencies are reported. Overall, this study provides a detailed idea to the new photovoltaic researchers regarding the solar cell structure, their efficiencies, and future potential of solar cells.