Emerging Photovoltaic Materials - Silicon & Beyond

The global solar market grew by 26% in 2017. According to research, the
installed grid-connected photovoltaics (PV) capacity is approaching 100
gigawatts (Source: GTM Research Data Hub). The cost of solar power has
declined at a rate of approximately 12% annually over the last five years.
Such cost reductions are driven by continuous technological developments
in achieving higher solar PV module efficiencies with improved manufacturing
processes. To keep up with the increasing demand and achieve
high energy return on energy invested (EROI), it is necessary for researchers
to strive for lower costs, higher efficiencies and longer lifetime of PV
technologies.