A review of Thin Film Solar Cells

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Basic Engineering sciences,Benha faculty of engineering, Benha University, Benha, Egypt

2 Electronics and Communications Department, Faculty of Engineering, Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Alex, Egypt

Abstract

Researchers did their best to find an alternative supply of energy to replace fossil fuel, which is crucial for environmental
requirements. One of the best candidates is solar energy, which is clean, abundant, and sustainable. To convert this energy
into electricity directly, Photovoltaic (PV) solar cells are used, hence these PV solar cells attracted researchers to explore
various methods of their development and the possibilities of enhancing their performance. These solar cells passed through
many phases of development to achieve low cost and high efficiency starting from the first generation which uses wafer
crystalline silicon passing to the second generation which is based on thin films such as amorphous Silicon (a-Si), Cadmium
Telluride (CdTe), and Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS), reaching the third generation based on perovskite
materials. Second generation solar cells nowadays compete with crystalline silicon solar cells because it uses less amount of
material which leads to fabrication of module with low cost resulting in higher efficiency compared to the first generation
cells. This work reviews thin film solar cells regarding the aspects of development methods, structure, advantages, and
disadvantages.

Keywords

Journal of Basic and Environmental Sciences
Volume 8, Issue 1
January 2021
Pages 36-46

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