Historical and future learning for the new era of multi-terawatt photovoltaics

Solar photovoltaics (PV) is entering a new era of multi-terawatt deployment, with 2 TW already in service and more than 75 TW predicted in many scenarios by 2050. This next era has been enabled by over five decades of cumulative advances in PV module cost reduction, performance and reliability. The current scale of deployment also introduces new needs, opportunities and challenges. In this Perspective we frame a path forwards based on learning, broadly defined as a combination of expansion of knowledge and advances through research and development, experience and collaboration. We discuss historical topics where learning has driven PV deployment until now, and emerging areas that are required to sustain high levels of future deployment. We expect progress to continue in terms of module price, performance and reliability, driven by advances in PV cell and module design, the emergence of tandem devices and increased focus on extending module lifetimes. Large-scale deployment also means large-scale sustainability and responsibility. We therefore posit that additional metrics, such as the impact on global CO2 emissions, resource consumption and design for reuse and recycling, will become increasingly important to the PV industry and provide opportunities for further learning.

ALBERI Kirstin;  PETERS I Marius;  VERLINDEN Pierre;  PHILIPPS Simon;  KOIKE Akio;  BARNES Teresa;  BERRY Joseph J.;  BERTONI Mariana;  BREYER Christian;  BURNHAM Laurie;  CASE Chris;  CHEN Yifeng;  DE WOLF Stefaan;  EGAN Renate;  FROITZHEIM Armin;  GATZ Sebastian;  GLOECKLER Markus;  GOLDSCHMIDT Jan-Christoph;  GORDON Ivan;  HAEGEL Nancy M;  HERMLE Martin;  HONSBERG Christiana;  HSI Edward;  HUBER Bill;  ISHIZUKA Shogo;  JAEGER-WALDAU Arnulf;  JEAN Joel;  YAJIE JIANG Jessica;  JURCA Shannon;  KAIZUKA Izumi;  KING Richard R.;  KOMOTO Keiichi;  KONDO Michio;  KULKARNI Milind;  KURTZ Sarah;  MACDONALD Daniel;  MERFELD Danielle;  KOBAYASHI Naoya;  NIKI Shigeru;  OBST Andreas;  OOZEKI Takashi;  PAETZOLD Ulrich W.;  PICKERING Jonathan;  PREU Ralf;  REESE Samantha B.;  REICHEL Christian;  REINDL Thomas;  REPINS Ingrid;  RONOH Geovrey;  ROSE Doug;  SAKURAI Keiichiro;  SCHLATMANN Rutger;  SLAOUI Abdelilah;  SINTON Ron;  SONI Kamal;  STANBERY Bill J.;  SUTIJA Davor;  TOPIC Marko;  UEDA Yuzuru;  VASI Juzer;  WAMBACH Karsten;  WARREN Emily;  WEBER Eike;  YAMAGUCHI Masafumi;  BETT A.; 

2026-04-01

NATURE PORTFOLIO

JRC142678

2058-7546 (online),   

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-025-01929-z,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC142678,   

10.1038/s41560-025-01929-z (online),