Ninth workshop on crystalline silicon solar cell materials and processes: Summary discussion sessions

This report is a summary of the panel discussions included with the Ninth Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Materials and Processes. The theme for the workshop was ``R and D Challenges and Opportunities in Si Photovoltaics.'' This theme was chosen because it appropriately reflects a host of challenges that the growing production of Si photovoltaics will be facing in the new millennium. The anticipated challenges will arise in developing strategies for cost reduction, increased production, higher throughput per manufacturing line, new sources of low-cost Si, and the introduction of new manufacturing processes for cell production. At the same time, technologies based on CdTe and CIS will come on line posing new competition. With these challenges come new opportunities for Si PV to wean itself from the microelectronics industry, to embark on a more aggressive program in thin-film Si solar cells, and to try new approaches to process monitoring