Advantages of single crystal silicon thin film solar cells

How are crystalline silicon and thin-film PV solar cells compared?

Finally crystalline silicon and thin-film PV solar cells technologies were compared together from the perspective of “total factors”, “technical factors”, “economic factors” and “payback period factor”.

Do thin-film silicon solar cells have a strong electric field?

For all types of p–i–n- and n–i–p-type thin-film silicon solar cells, it is of paramount importance to have a strong internal electric field and to avoid substantial reduction of this field by any of the effects listed earlier.

What are the disadvantages of thin-film silicon solar cells and modules?

Conclusions Thin-film silicon solar cells and modules have at present a significant disadvantage with respect to wafer-based crystalline silicon modules and even with respect to some other thin-film modules such as CIGS modules: their conversion efficiency is quite a bit lower.

Can thin-film silicon solar cells be deposited on stainless steel?

Deposition of thin-film silicon solar cells on stainless steel has the advantage of being relatively straightforward. Increasingly one attempts to use polymers as substrates. Here solar cell deposition is more difficult, because it is impaired by outgassing from the polymer and by temperature limitations of the latter.

Are thin-film solar cells suited for higher light intensities?

On the other hand present thin-film silicon solar cells and modules are not suited for higher light intensities—i.e., for applications with sunlight concentration. As for the angle of incidence of the incoming light, it evidently also has, for optical reasons, an influence on the efficiency of the solar module.

How efficient is a thin-film cuinse2/cds solar cell?

In 1981, Mickelsen and Chen demonstrated a 9.4% efficient thin-film CuInSe2/CdS solar cell. The efficiency improvement was due to the difference in the method of evaporating the two selenide layers. The films were deposited with fixed In and Se deposition rates, and the Cu rate was adjusted to achieve the desired composition and resistivity.