Outlook of solar PV technology: From material to system

Abstract

This paper provides an aspect of coming PV technology taking into account the paradigm shift of recent PV industry and market, i.e. material to system. In the early stage of the PV technology, the solar cell material and device for aiming at higher efficiency and lower cost have been emphasized, because more than 60% of the total cost is shared by solar cells. As the cost of solar cells is going down significantly, the emphasis is shifting from material and device toward system. In this paper, the current issue and outlook of the PV technology are overviewed.