Design and Analysis of Various Solar Cell Technologies for Improvements in Efficiencies

Solar energy is an inexhaustible source of energy existing on earth. Sun annually delivers approximately 10,000 times of energy that human race currently exploits. Being neat and clean, solar energy has steered path to redeem utilization of conventional resources of energy by birth of solar cells. Solar cells, modules and Photovoltaic systems have been industrialized substantially since race to conquer outer space started during 1960s. Further, oil crisis in 1970s forced the nations to embrace solar technologies as alternative means for conventional sources of energy. Developments in cost efficacy, compact constructions, consistency and lifetime enabled photovoltaics to be the first option for extensive range of uses in day to day life. Photovoltaics are widely used in telecommunications, remote power and cathodic protection. Objective of this paper is to review developments of solar cells since its origin, with comprehensive description of manufacturing processes, implementations and power conversion efficiencies of solar cells of various generations including their future trends and aspects.