The renewable energy sector is expanding rapidly, with solar power emerging as one of the fastest-growing technologies. In 2023, global annual investments into solar overtook all other power generation technologies for the first time, including global oil investments. Growth of investment continued into 2024, with the IEA predicting the sector to receive the greatest share of global funding by the end of the year. While silicon photovoltaics (PV) continue to dominate the market, a range of established and emerging technologies have, and continue, to contribute to the sector's evolution. Among them is thin film PV, which has long struggled to compete on the same scale as silicon PV. However, with rising energy demands, ambitious decarbonization targets, and increasing concerns over energy security, could thin film PV uptake be on the rise?

 

IDTechEx's latest report "Thin Film Photovoltaics Market 2025-2035: Technologies, Technologies, Players & Trends" comprehensively covers the entire thin film PV market. Data driven benchmarking of the established and emerging thin film PV technologies, including dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC), organic solar cells (OPV), perovskite PV, cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), gallium arsenide (GaAs), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) photovoltaics, along with over 40 profiles of key market payers, helps to outline the entire thin film PV sector. Critical analysis of the major and emerging application areas including solar farms, residential rooftop, building integrated PV, agrivoltaics and wireless electronics, helps to formulate granular 10-year forecasts for the entire solar market. IDTechEx forecasts the thin film PV market to exceed US$11 billion by 2035.

Thin film solar cells are a sub-class of solar cell, manufactured by the deposition of one or more thin films of photovoltaic material onto a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Aside from the electrodes, each functional layer within a thin-film solar cell generally has a thickness between 5 and 500 nm, enabling an extremely thin power generation device, of typically a few nm to a few microns thick. Thin film PV modules are therefore very lightweight and can be flexible (depending on the substrate choice), meaning they can be installed for low-weight applications, as well as on curved surfaces.

 

The thin film PV market share has historically remained low, reducing to around 2.5% of all solar market installations as of 2024. Thin film PV technologies have struggled to compete to the same degree as silicon PV, due to their lower performance metrics, raw material concerns, and cost of manufacturing. However, a shift in the technological landscape, along with a broadening of application scope is likely to result in significant changes to the entire thin film market over the next decade.

 

Novel applications helping to drive market adoption

Thin film PV can be used for traditional solar applications as well as applications where silicon solar technology is not suited. These applications include building integrated PV (BIPV), where the panels are attached to sides of buildings and are incorporated into existing infrastructures. Thin film modules can be up to 90% lighter than silicon modules and therefore are very well suited for vertical building integration, since no significant structural modifications are required. Given the sufficiently greater area of available vertical space compared to rooftop space, this application could contribute significantly to renewable energy initiatives. Some types of thin film PV can also be adjusted in transparency, making them less aesthetically obtrusive and ideally suited for windows.

 

Other emerging applications belong to the small self-powered electronics and Internet of Things (IoT) sector, which is expected to grow substantially in the coming years as smart electronics become more prevalent in everyday life. These small electronics typically rely on batteries which require replacement every few years at the expense of high material and labor costs. Providing power to these devices using small low-cost PV modules with greater longevity than batteries is a very promising application.

 

Emerging perovskite PV technology to help drive the thin film market

Perovskite PV has received significant academic and industry attention for its light weight and flexible nature, high manufacturing scalability and significantly lower cost compared to established solar technologies. Perovskite solar cells contain a perovskite active layer which can be deposited as a thin film using solution-based sheet-to-sheet or roll-to-roll compatible processes, making them very attractive from a financial perspective as processing is easily scaled and automated. Along with this, the use of relatively abundant and inexpensive raw materials to synthesize perovskites means that IDTechEx finds perovskite PV to be significantly cheaper than other thin film solar technologies as well as silicon.

 

As well as fabrication of single junction perovskite solar cells, this technology is also explored for its use in tandem solar cell architectures. All single junction technologies, including established silicon and thin film solar will approach an efficiency plateau. This plateau is expected since there exists a maximum theoretical efficiency limit of 30% for a single junction device. Instead, researchers are exploring the integration of perovskites with other solar technologies in order to achieve much higher power conversion efficiencies. These multi-junction cells possess a much greater theoretical efficiency limit of approximately 43%. The technologies which are receiving significant commercial attention are perovskite/silicon, all-perovskite and perovskite/CIGS tandem PV, with each device posing individual technological advantages.

 

Perovskite PV has entered early-stage commercialization, with many industry players touting the technology as the "next major solar generation technology". The significant innovation opportunities, rising commercial attention, and consequent predicted growth of the perovskite PV market is a considerable factor helping to revive thin film solar. Current forecasts by IDTechEx, see perovskite PV account for over 40% of all thin film solar installations by 2035.

 

In this report, IDTechEx further explores the growth drivers for the thin film solar market, as well as analyzing the potential pitfalls to thin film PV adoption. Despite limited market growth thus far, significant ramp up is expected by the end of the decade as the demand for clean and renewable energy continues to grow.

 

Key Aspects:

 

Full characterization of the entire thin film photovoltaic market and individual technology outlook

- Detailed analysis and data driven benchmarking of all thin film PV technologies, including dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC), organic solar cells (OPV), perovskite PV, cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), gallium arsenide (GaAs), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) photovoltaics

 Review of the major and emerging players developing each of the thin film PV technologies

 Analysis of the key and emerging application areas helping to drive the uptake of thin film PV technologies

 

In depth analysis of the key material trends for thin film photovoltaic technologies

 Assessment of the manufacturing methods for thin film PV, including benchmarking of the major deposition techniques

 Review of the main material components for thin film PV, including substrates and encapsulant materials, along with analysis of the emerging and established technologies

 

Assessment of the emerging tandem photovoltaics market

 Coverage of the key and emerging technologies which are receiving industry attention, including perovskite/silicon tandem PV, all-perovskite tandem PV and perovskite/CIGS tandem PV

 Review of the major application areas which can benefit from tandem PV

 

Market analysis throughout

 Detailed assessment of the entire thin film photovoltaics market, including over 40 company profiles

 Forecasts for the entire thin film PV market for the period 2025-2035 segmented by technology and application area

 In depth cost analysis of each technology type to help formulate market revenue and module price forecasts for the next decade