A comparative study of different materials used for solar photovoltaics technology

Photovoltaics are clean, abundant, and sustainable energy sources that has the potential to fulfill increasing global energy demand. A photovoltaic cell is a device that does the real work of converting solar energy to electrical energy. As solar photovoltaic will play a very crucial role in the future, it is essential to analyze and have comprehensive study based on materials and types of technologies. The paper presents a holistic review of three primary solar photovoltaic technologies, the dominant crystalline silicon photovoltaic, thin-film photovoltaic, and much recent emerging photovoltaic. The need for the energy transformation, evolution of technology, cell materials, cell performance, global market share, cost, and different properties for the corresponding solar photovoltaic technologies are equally assessed. In addition to this, the benefits and challenges of each photovoltaics technology are also analyzed. The comparative study of different photovoltaic technologies will help the reader to explore potential research scopes in the field of materials, design, technologies, and improvement in energy conversion of different solar photovoltaic technologies.