A REVIEW OF NON-SILICON AND NEW PHOTOVOLTAICS TECHNOLOGY FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Abstract

Solar energy is the most abundant, inexhaustible and clean of all the renewable energy resources. Photovoltaic (PV) technology is one of the finest ways to harness the solar power. In the recent years, the world’s development of PV technology is growing very fast because of the technological development and government support for renewable energy. Silicon is a leading material in PV cells technology, due to its high efficiency. This paper reviews the non-silicon photovoltaic technology, based upon Cadmium telluride (CdTe) and Cadmium sulphide (CdS), Copper indium gallium selenide/copper indium selenide (CIGS/CIS) and Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Also, it is presented some new photovoltaic technology for PV cell production – Nanotechnology or ‘‘third– generation PV’’.