Table 1.

Summary of PV technologies.

GEN	Technology	Production Method	Characteristics	Efficiency (%)	Reference
1GEN	m-Si	Czochralski	Expensive, stable	24.4	[8,15]
1GEN	p-Si	Siemens	Low cost, high defect content	19.9	[15,16]
1GEN	GaAs	Expitaxial growth	Expensive, good design control	18.4–28.8	[15,19,20]
2GEN	a-Si	Large-area deposition	Non-toxic, short life cycle	10.2–12.7	[15,24]
2GEN	μc-Si	Roll-to-roll	Low defect content, good degradability	11.9–14.0	[13,22]
2GEN	CIGS	Deposition, co-evaporation	Tuneable band gap	22.3	[13,26,27]
2GEN	CdTe	Deposition	High temperature tolerance, low fooling	21	[13]
3GEN	DSSC	Roll-to-roll,	Work in low-light conditions, robustness	5.0–20.0	[30]
3GEN	QDs	Solution casting	Efficient conductivity	11.0–17.0	[52]
3GEN	OPSCs	Solution casting	High work function, thermally stable	9.7–11.2	[13,77]
3GEN	PVSC (CH3NH3PbI3)	Sputtering/ printing	Cheap, simple	21.1–21.6	[13,87]
3GEN	MJ 1	Stacking	Wide range of design, Challenging manufacture	35.8	[13,105,111]
3GEN	IMM 2	Monolithic growth	Cheap, high band gap	40–44.4	[13,105,114,185]
4GEN	BHJ 3 PSC 4 with GO/PEDOT:PSS	Solution casting	Reproducible and stable	4.28	[123]
4GEN	PSC with G/PEDOT:PSS	Solution casting	Good functionality	2.82–11.8	[121,153]
4GEN	PVSC 5 with Li-GO	Spray deposition	Stable, long lifetime	1.07–11.14	[186]
4GEN	PVSC with rGO/PEDOT:PSS	Solution casting	Long lifetime, reduced elec.-hole recombination	5.7–11.95	[129,152,157,158]
4GEN	PSCs with B-doped CNTs	Solution casting	Improved electron transport	4.1–8.6	[182]

¹ MJ: multi-junction; ² IMM: inverted methamorphic multijunction; ³ BHJ: Bulk heterojunction; ⁴ PSC: polymer solar cell; ⁵ PVSC: perovskite.