CdTe solar cells: technology, operation and reliability

Over the last 20 years, the technological improvements of CdTe solar cell have been impressive, and today the performance of these cells is comparable with that of silicon cells. Behind these important results, there have been important research efforts, aimed at exploring every single aspect related to CdTe cell optimization. One of these is reliability, that is fundamental in the perspective of massive commercialization. The aim of this review paper is to explore the main aspects related to the operation and reliability of CdTe solar cells, and describe the most relevant results presented in the literature on these topics. The paper is divided in two parts. The first is dedicated to a general introduction of CdTe issues. In this part, we report the most relevant details on CdTe solar cells from a reliability perspective, including (a) a description of the CdTe solar cells development on the years, (b) a description of the main production methods, (c) an overview of the main mathematical model to describe a solar cell, and (d) the main normative requirements related to solar cell reliability. The second section describes the most important papers in the field of CdTe solar cell reliability, along with two recent case studies, that can be used as an example to understand the complexity of the involved processes. The results are critically discussed by considering the most recent literature on the topic, to provide a general overview to the reader willing to approach the topic.