12th Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell Materials and Processes: Summary Discussion Sessions

This report is a summary of the discussion sessions of the 12th Workshop on Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells and Processes. The theme of the workshop was 'Fundamental R&D in c-Si: Enabling Progress in Solar-Electric Technology.' This theme was chosen to reflect a concern that the current expansion in the PV energy production may redirect basic research efforts to production-oriented issues. The PVindustry is installing added production capacity and new production lines that include the latest technologies. Once the technologies are selected, it is difficult to make changes. Consequently, a large expansion can stagnate the technologies and diminish interest in fundamental research. To prevent the fundamental R&D program from being overwhelmed by the desire to address immediate engineeringissues, there is a need to establish topics of fundamental nature that can be pursued by the universities and the research institutions. Hence, one of the objectives of the workshop was to identify such areas for fundamental research.