Silicon Solar Cells: Trends, Manufacturing Challenges, and AI Perspectives

Photovoltaic (PV) installations have experienced significant growth in the past 20 years. During this period, the solar industry has witnessed technological advances, cost reductions, and increased awareness of renewable energy’s benefits. As more than 90% of the commercial solar cells in the market are made from silicon, in this work we will focus on silicon-based solar cells. As PV research is a very dynamic field, we believe that there is a need to present an overview of the status of silicon solar cell manufacturing (from feedstock production to ingot processing to solar cell fabrication), including recycling and the use of artificial intelligence. Therefore, this work introduces the silicon solar cell value chain with cost and sustainability aspects. It provides an overview of the main manufacturing techniques for silicon ingots, specifically Czochralski and directional solidification, with a focus on highlighting their key characteristics. We discuss the major challenges in silicon ingot production for solar applications, particularly optimizing production yield, reducing costs, and improving efficiency to meet the continued high demand for solar cells. We review solar cell technology developments in recent years and the new trends. We briefly discuss the recycling aspects, and finally, we present how digitalization and artificial intelligence can aid in solving some of the current PV industry challenges.