SECTION INTRODUCTION: Future Visions & Current Concerns

Photovoltaics has benefited tremendously from knowledge, technologies and experience in the semiconductor chip industry. This is especially evident for early photovoltaics, in the ’50s to (roughly) the ’80s of the 20th century. One could even argue that the semiconductor industry gave birth to photovoltaics. As the photovoltaic sector developed, it became clear, however, that the technologies needed for downscaling of dimensions and increasing of speed of integrated circuits are quite different from those required to enhance cell and module performance and decrease cost per square meter of device area. Photovoltaics thus largely went its own way and introduced technologies and manufacturing practices that were specific to photovoltaics.

This certainly worked well for a period of time and has enabled the development of a wealth of different types of cells and modules and a drastic reduction of manufacturing costs. To a certain extent this can be seen as the period of exploration and divergence – a child finding its own way and becoming independent.

Now that the photovoltaic sector is gradually coming of age, it becomes clear that it can still (or rather, again) learn from the semiconductor industry. Further growth can no longer be based on such a wide spectrum of technological approaches and company-specific roadmaps. Of course, individual companies need to distinguish themselves from competitors by their products, but it is impossible to develop successful products from technology scratch. This is far too costly and/or too slow for companies to stay in business. Moreover, the lack of globally accepted process and product standards makes it difficult to design advanced yet economical production lines and to address a broad range of markets with a limited number of products. This now starts to hamper rapid further cost reduction and market growth.

In this issue of Future Photovoltaics, two well-known successes of the semiconductor chip industry – Moore’s Law and global standardization – are shown to have important potential parallels with the photovoltaic industry. In other words, the photovoltaic industry sector may benefit from the experiences and practices that made the semiconductor industry the miracle of the 20th century. If translated and applied well, they may make the photovoltaic industry the miracle of the 21st century.

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