Progress in industrial crystalline silicon solar PV technology

The efficiency improvement in the last 5 years of commercial photovoltaic solar modules has been analysed by using data available for the German market, the world´s largest market. In this analysis the average c-Si solar module efficiency has increased from 11.9 to 13.1% with the best module efficiency increasing from 15.2% to 19.3% between 2003 and 2008. In comparison the average thin film module efficiency increased from 5.5 to 7.0% with the best module efficiency increasing from 8.2% to 11.1%. A clear trend towards single crystalline Si modules is observed. The total number of different modules available has trebled and the share of thin film modules has remained practically constant at about 9%.