a review on progresses and developments in solar cell technologies

To reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, mitigate climate change and meet the ever-increasing energy demands, cost effective and everlasting renewable energy resources have been considered as promising alternatives. among the renewable resources, solar energy is the most potential and clean energy resource. in this review paper, advancements and developments in different generations of solar cell technologies have been reviewed. starting from silicon solar cells, solar cell technologies have passed through different stages of improvement regarding cost and efficiency. but in market, first generation solar cells are still dominating with global market share of over 90%. thin film solar cell technology which comprises the second generation are economical as compared to traditional si solar cells but have relatively low efficiency. third generation solar cells consist of dssc, organic, perovskites and multijunction solar cells. the perovskites and tandem perovskites have achieved record breaking efficiencies of 34.6% and 36.1% in recent research. but the commercialization of these technologies is still a challenge due to stability related issues. the fourth-generation solar cells which combines the merits of organic and inorganic materials to give bulk heterojunction technology are emerging as future solar cell technologies.