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Why are cadmium telluride thin-film solar cells less expensive than silicon thin-film cells?

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Diagram of a solar cell showing labeled layers, including a front electrical contact grid, antireflection layer, absorber layer, back junction layer, and back electrical contact layer, with arrows indicating light entering and terminals connecting to a circuit. — solar cell A commonly used solar cell structure. In many such cells, the absorber layer and the back junction layer are both made of the same material.

Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar cells are generally less expensive to produce than silicon thin-film cells due to differences in manufacturing efficiency and material processing.1

While early thin-film technologies like amorphous silicon were hampered by time-consuming and costly deposition processes, CdTe technology is highly conducive to mass production. CdTe thin films can be deposited onto substrates quickly, making it a high-throughput manufacturing process. Furthermore, CdTe cells are more efficient than amorphous silicon cells because their band gap of 1.4 electron volts is well-matched to the solar spectrum, allowing for better energy conversion.1

By contrast, the production of silicon-based photovoltaics—particularly those involving crystalline silicon—often requires more complex, energy-intensive, or time-consuming methods, such as the Czochralski process or the sawing of wafers, which can lead to higher costs and material waste. Although amorphous silicon is abundant and nontoxic, its low efficiency compared to CdTe makes it less competitive in terms of overall cost per kilowatt of installed capacity. Consequently, CdTe modules have become a leading low-cost option for solar electricity generation.2134