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Japan intends to increase the share of photovoltaic (PV) energy in its mix of electricity production from 4.5% today to 12% by 2030. However, as a result of Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) reductions and limited grid access for new projects, Japan's PV demand shrank by 23% year-over-year in 2016 and another 10% in 2017. Even so, in terms of the cost and pace of deployment, solar PV has grown much more quickly than expected in Japan, similar to what has occurred in other markets in the past (for example, the Spanish market between 2000 and 2008). Due to this fast growth, the generation cost of solar PV appears high in Japan compared with international benchmarks, something that can damage future market development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the significance of the International Photovoltaic (PV) Module Quality Assurance Task Force (IPQAT), which aims to develop standards for PV product assessment. She notes the objective of IPQAT to establish a rating system addressing the needs of customers and countries to come up with a single test protocol. She provides the benefits of the system including module design durability, interest rate reduction and module design optimization.

This special issue gathers a selection of papers in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Photovoltaics (PV) that were presented at the 2nd EU PV Clusters Workshop and General Assembly “Progress in Photovoltaics and Nanotechnology: from FP7 to Horizon 2020”, held at the University of Barcelona (Spain) in November 2013 (cf. the Preface on pp. 10–12). A relevant contribution from the European Project SCALENANO is the development of new Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell architectures incorporating ZnO nanorod arrays that are reviewed by Ohm et al. (pp. 76–87), following the processes schematically shown in the cover image. This paper describes new technological insights that are given for the synthesis of devices using electrodeposited ZnO nanorods as either front or back nanostructured contacts, exploring new promising concepts to maximize photonconversion by optical and electrical enhancement. These device architectures are compatible with the use of vacuum‐free processes with a high potential for reduction of production costs, as spray pyrolysis based processes that are described in the paper by Espíndola‐Rodríguez et al. (pp. 126–134). In the field of Si based technologies, the application of doped colloidal silicon nanocrystals sandwiched between hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers as emitters in silicon heterojunction solar cells may turn out to be an interesting system to exploit quantum confinement effects in solar cells or for the processing of low‐cost and potentially printable emitter layers, as described in the Feature Article by Leendertz et al. (pp. 156–161) from the European project nanoPV. The cross‐sectional TEM micrograph on the cover shows a crystalline silicon wafer covered with an amorphous layer and n‐type Si‐nanocrystals. Areas with regular lattice structure provide proof for the existence of nanocrystals inside the amorphous layer. In this paper, the authors discuss the technological challenges of such an approach and present first solar cells that reach conversion efficiencies of 13.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including low-cost photovoltaic solutions, enhancing photovoltaic efficiency, and critical grid parity needed for competitive electricity.