Abstract :
Crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) solar cell technology was developed to address the difficulty that silicon waferbased
technology has in reaching the very low costs required for large-scale photovoltaic applications as well as the
perceived fundamental difficulties with other thin-film technologies. The aim was to combine the advantages of standard
silicon wafer-based technology, namely ruggedness, durability, good electronic properties and environmental
soundness with the advantages of thin-films, specifically low material use, large monolithic construction and a desirable
glass superstrate configuration. The challenge has been to match the different preferred processing temperatures of silicon
and glass and to obtain strong solar absorption in notoriously weakly-absorbing silicon of only 1.4lm thickness,
the thinnest active layer of the key thin-film contenders. A rugged, durable silicon thin-film technology has been developed
arguably with the lowest likely manufacturing cost of these contenders and confirmed efficiency for small pilot line
modules already in the 8–9% energy conversion efficiency range, on the path to 12–13%.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
