**8. Conclusions**

Si solar cells have become an important part of the renewable energy domain over past decades with matured manufacturing technologies. P-type multicrystalline wafers have become the main-stay for solar cell production. However, with higher efficiency and decreasing production costs, mono-crystalline solar cells have also gained a significant share and are expected to compete closely with multi-crystalline wafers in the near future. For standard Al-BSF technology, 19 and 20% has become the bench-mark for multi-crystalline and mono-crystalline solar cells, respectively. Mono-PERC and multi-PERC cells have reached stabilized efficiencies of 21.5 and 20%, respectively. In addition, PERC also provides a simpler approach for bifacial solar cells by having a grid pattern on the RS instead of the full area contact. High efficiency n-type and bifacial solar cells have a market-share of <10% which is expected to increase in the future. The manufacturing technologies have matured considerably over the past few years with further improvements to increase the throughput.
