Production and Related Challenges
Photovoltaics — Technical, Economic, and Environmental Aspects

As explained in [D 3 942], production is largely dominated by monocrystalline silicon-based technologies, which have enabled production costs to be reduced dramatically through innovation and mass production. This technology has many advantages: it does not use toxic or critically scarce materials. It uses silicon, which is an abundant element in the Earth’s crust. Conversion efficiencies are very high (up to 28% in the lab and 25% in production), and reliability over 25 to 30 years has been proven for several decades.

The challenges in production lie in manufacturing photovoltaic modules that are...