Empowering Photovoltaics with Smart Light Management Technologies

Each day, the Sun’s rays strike Earth’s continents with four times more energy than humanity consumes in an entire year. Therefore, such enormous solar energy potential underscores the urgent need to replace conventional and unsustainable fossil fuel consumption, given its damaging impact on our climate and environment. Efforts to harness this clean energy have driven significant advancements in solar photovoltaics (PV), making it the world’s fastest-growing renewable energy technology. However, its current contribution to electricity production remains below 5%, while coal and gas continue to dominate. Achieving a swift transition to a carbon-neutral energy system thus demands scaling up PV production capacity, alongside ongoing innovation. In 2022, PV industry produced solar panels with a capacity exceeding 200 GW. Yet, to reach multi-terawatt levels by 2030, further boosts are essential. One promising strategy involves reducing silicon wafer thickness so that more cells can be made from the same amount of silicon. This not only speeds up production but also lowers module and electricity generation costs. Consequently, endeavors have been made to develop optical solutions to counteract the reduced sunlight absorption by thinner solar cells. This chapter explores promising photonics-based approaches that enable physically thinner but optically thicker solar cells, offering efficiency enhancements and cost reductions. We explain their applications, discuss their challenges, and estimate their impact on energy yield. Additionally, we outline how non-silicon thin-film PV is opening up a plethora of consumer-oriented applications, thanks to the higher flexibility/bendability of thinner cells. Therefore, thin-film PV could empower our transition to a fully green society, impacting various aspects of our lives.