The utilization of renewable sources of energy in everyday life is of significant interest due to the growing interest in addressing global warming, reducing carbon footprints and the associated challenges with climate change and the environment. In this context, the enhanced use of solar energy is particularly on the rise. It has been reported by the International Energy Agency that solar photovoltaic power generation is becoming the lowest-cost option in the modern world. This reference text presents the most recent advances in the area of solar cells, including silicon and GaAs solar cells, CIGS, CdTe and CZTS-based solar cells, perovskite solar cells, polymer solar cells, concentrator solar cell systems and tandem solar cells.
The book takes a simple approach to address the evolution in photovoltaics from the material to the device to the panel. It discusses the associated challenges in the research area and the solutions to these problems from the materials, device, and systems processing & characterization perspective. The techniques that are required at each stage of the cell and panel characterization are described in detail, and the process-properties-performance correlations in solar cells are described as case studies.
