Photovoltaic Materials and Manufacturing Issues 2010

Manufacturing and sales of photovoltaic (PV) energy have been growing at rates in excess of 40% for the last several years. Although the current economic down turn has caused some slow down of the PV sales for 2009, the PV energy production is expected to exceed 5GW. There is expected to be a strong recovery in the photovoltaic market in the near future. Currently, wafer based crystalline silicon continues to be the dominant material for solar cells and is expected to remain as the main technology for at least 10 more years. However, solar cells based on other material systems such as a-Si, CdTe, and CIGS are rapidly gaining ground. All of them are fabricated in thin films and have high potentials of cost reduction and quality improvement. Recent shortage of polysilicon feedstock has expedited commercialization of non-silicon technologies, as well as concentrator technologies that use silicon or other materials. Additionally, all these materials are gaining technological maturity now that a dramatic increase of production volumes is underway. This rapid expansion of the PV industry also brings new challenges both in commercializing the technologies that produce high efficiency laboratory cells and in lowering the cost of PV energy further to be cost competitive with other energy technologies. This 3.5 day workshop will be a forum to discuss major issues pertaining to current and emerging materials for PV applications and those related to low cost production of solar cells and modules. The workshop will offer an excellent opportunity for researchers in private industry and universities to prioritize mutual needs for future collaborative research. A combination of oral presentations by invited speakers, poster sessions, and discussion sessions will review recent advances in crystal growth, new cell structures, new processes and process characterization techniques, and cell/module issues for future manufacturing demands.