Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Advantages
• raw material is abundant, durable, environmentally benign
• 22% efficiency (incoming light to electricity)

Disadvantages
• producing high purity silicon is expensive
• low absorptivity so must be relatively thick (100 µm is heavy and rigid)
• $3-$5/watt (a 5 kW system that costs $15000 is $3/W; operating 8 hours/day for 20 years is $0.05/kWh)
Barbara Maynard, "Solar Solutions," Chemistry, Spring 2007.
• $0.03/kilowatt-hour (Dubai)
"New Record Set for World's Cheapest Solar," Bloomberg, May 2016.
US average residential electricity costs $0.13/kilowatt-hour
US Energy Information Agency, data for July 2016.