Photovoltaic power: present state and perspectives

PV is a fast growing technology in most advanced countries. Crystalline silicon technology dominates the market but thin films, long developed at laboratory scale, made a striking breakthrough in 2008. Research is working at improving the energy conversion efficiency while scaling down the costs. Electricity grid parity is the goal which is expected to be reached in the next ten years for private housing. Very high efficiencies, above the current 42% record, is another strong motivation for research. (author)