Novel trends in improvement of solar cell characteristics

Faced with an alarming increase of energy consumption on one side, and very limiting amounts of available conventional energy sources on the other, scientists have turned to the most promising renewable energy sources. Possibilities for the application of solar systems based on photovoltaic (PV) conversion of solar energy are widespread, primarily because of their relatively low cost and the very important fact that solar energy is the most acceptable source of electrical energy from an environmental point of view. Recently, increased investments in the development of PV technology have been observed worldwide. However, as with every other energy source, PV technology also has some limitations and disadvantages, primarily connected to its low efficiency. There are several trends in the development of solar cells, but the two main directions are the improvement of the conventional solar cell characteristics based on semiconductor materials, and exploring the possibilities of using new materials. The aim of this paper is to present some different approaches for the improvement of solar cells