Advances in Photovoltaics: Part 4

The rapid transformation of our energy supply system to efficient use of renewable energies is one of the biggest challenges and simultaneously opportunities of mankind. This truly global-scale project is well on its way, and photovoltaics is considered a cornerstone technology. The present series of volumes on 'Advances in Photovoltaics', which covers all aspects of this important semiconductor technology, reflects the tremendous and dynamic advances that have been made on this topic since 1975, when a first book on solar cells - written by Harold J. Hovel of IBM - was published as volume 11 in this now famous series on 'Semiconductors and Semimetals'. Since then continuous exponential growth from the annual Megawatt shipments of the late 1970s via the current 10s of Gigawatts shipments in the early 2010s to the expected hundreds of Gigawatts of annual shipment in the next decade. Behind this is a continuous and rapid scientific development that leads to the necessary price and cost reductions in global industrial mass-production. * Each chapter of this volume is written by an internationally leading expert on his topic * The volume provides an in-depth overview of the current status and perspectives of thin film PV technologies