Material challenges for solar cells in the twenty-first century: directions in emerging technologies.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF ADVANCED MATERIALS 2018;
19:336-369. [PMID:
29707072 PMCID:
PMC5917436 DOI:
10.1080/14686996.2018.1433439]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2017] [Revised: 01/15/2018] [Accepted: 01/24/2018] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Photovoltaic generation has stepped up within the last decade from outsider status to one of the important contributors of the ongoing energy transition, with about 1.7% of world electricity provided by solar cells. Progress in materials and production processes has played an important part in this development. Yet, there are many challenges before photovoltaics could provide clean, abundant, and cheap energy. Here, we review this research direction, with a focus on the results obtained within a Japan-French cooperation program, NextPV, working on promising solar cell technologies. The cooperation was focused on efficient photovoltaic devices, such as multijunction, ultrathin, intermediate band, and hot-carrier solar cells, and on printable solar cell materials such as colloidal quantum dots.
Collapse