The primary types of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies fall into four different generational categories, which include:

• Monocrystalline silicon (1G)
• Thin-film deposits (2G) of semiconductors based on polycrystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, micro-crystalline silicon, cadmium telluride, or copper indium selenide/sulfide
• Photoelectrochemical cells, polymer solar cells, and nanocrystal solar cells (3G)
• Composite PV technology, which utilizes polymers with nano particles mixed together to make a single multispectrum layer (4G)

Today, we’ll take a brief look at the most popular technology currently in use in the PV industry: monocrystalline silicon.

Monocrystalline silicon
Monocrystalline silicon cells are generally referred to as silicon wafer-based solar cells, and they represent the so-called first generation of photovoltaics.

Monocrystalline cells are produced by slicing silicon wafers from a single crystal boule (high-purity silicon). Monocrystalline technologies currently yeild the highest levels of solar conversion efficiency of turning sunlight into energy. Most monocrystalline cells on the market today offer around 20% efficiency, while the theoretical maximum conversion efficiency is about 37%.

Monocrystalline silicon cells are costly to produce due to their capital-intensive manufacturing methods, which have been carried over from the silicon-based microprocessor industry. Due to this carry over, the quality standard for monocyrstalline silicon cells is often much higher than needed in photovoltaic (PV) production.

Monocrystalline silicon cells account for more than 85% of the current production of solar cells, making them the dominant technology in today’s photovoltaic market.