Simakin V. V., Strebkov D. S.,* Tyukhov I. I.*

All-Russian Institute of Electrical Engineering, Moscow, Russia *All-Russian Institute for Electrification of Agriculture, Moscow, Russia

Introduction

This paper describes the evolution of the silicon multi-junctional solar cells with vertical p-n junctions (SCVJ) and its present status, mainly, at the base of researches carried out in Russia and the USA. The number of SCVJ produced in the whole world is quite low in comparison with the traditional SC. At the same time according to the laws of technical cenosis (as in biology — biocenosis) increasing of unification and size of SC leads to increasing economic efficiency of solar energy and, yet, diversification (developing and creating other types of SC, and other principles) leads to higher competitiveness and occupying new niches [28].