Solar cells' evolution and perspectives: a short review

Global energy consumption has dramatically increased in the last century, with a further acceleration in the recent years. In this context, renewable energies play a major role toward the sustainability of human society and solar energy is strongly growing among them. Throughout the years, many different technological approaches have been developed. Some of them, like silicon photovoltaics cells, are quite mature, while others are in their initial development stage. After a brief overview of the global energetic scenario and a short historical evolution of solar cells, in this chapter we give a description of the main solar technologies, with their weaknesses and strengths. Furthermore, we introduce some strategies for increasing their efficiency based on light management, such as surface texturing, spectral conversion layers, and plasmonic nanostructures. Finally, future perspectives for the solar exploitation and, more generally, for the use of renewable energies with respect to the global energy needs and toward the ambitious target of full sustainability are discussed.