It is generally considered that there are three basic generations of solar cells, though one of them doesn't quite exist yet, and research into it is ongoing.

The first generation of solar cells are high-cost, high-efficiency. These solar cells are manufactured in a fashion similar to computers, involving extremely pure silicon, use a single junction for extracting energy from photons, and are very efficient, approaching their theoretical efficiency maximum of 33%. In 2007, first generation solar cells accounted for 89.6% of commercial production, though the market share of these solar cells are declining. The manufacturing processes that are used to produce first generation cells are inherently expensive, meaning that these cells may take years to pay for their purchasing costs. It is not thought that first generation cells will be able to provide energy more cost effective than fossil fuel sources.

The second generation of solar cells, which has been under intense development for the 90s and early 2000s, are low-cost, low-efficiency cells. These are most frequently associated with thin film solar cells, designs that use minimal materials and cheap manufacturing processes. The most popular materials used for second generation solar cells are copper indium gallium selenide, cadmium telluride (CdTe), amorphous silicon and micromorphous silicon.

A standard example of second generation cells would be the solar cells made by Nanosolar, which uses a special machine to print the cells at an extremely fast rate. Though these cells have only 10-15% conversion efficiency, the decreased cost more than makes up for this deficit, and it is thought that second generation solar cells will surpass first generation cells in market share sometime around 2010. Second generation solar cells have the potential to be more cost effective than fossil fuel, though this may not occur until 2015 or later.

Third generation solar cells are just a research target, and do not really exist yet. The goal of third generation solar cell research are low-cost, high efficiency cells. The goal are thin-film cells that use novel approaches to obtain efficiencies in the range of 30-60%. Some analysts predict that third generation cells could start to be commercialized sometime around 2020, but this is just a guess. Technologies associated with third generation solar cells include multijunction photovoltaic cells, tandem cells, nanostructured cells to better pick up incident light, and using excess thermal generation to enhance voltages or carrier collection.