Thin-film photovoltaic systems are quickly diffusing in these last years, and they now account for some 12% of solar installations around the world. Thin-film (TF) photovoltaic cells are less expensive to manufacture than the traditional crystalline silicon-based ones and have considerably lowered the barrier to the entry into the photovoltaic energy business. Significantly, the production cost of first solar CdTe modules is now lower than 1$/W_p. The sector is thus rapidly switching from the heavy fragile silicon panels to thin-film technologies which use a number of different inorganic and organic photovoltaic semiconductors, and the revenue market share of TFPVs is expected to rise to 20% of the total PV market by 2010.

The present year has remarkably been characterized by the first commercial portable modules by Konarka and the first pilot plant (10 000 m²/year) manufacturing dye-sensitized solar cells for building integration in roofs and facades by CHOSE in collaboration with Dyesol Italia.

The topics to be covered include, but are not limited to:

• Inorganic cells (CIS, CIGS, CdTe, amorphous silicon)
• Organic cells
• Dye-sensitized cells
• Third generation cells
• Papers about scientific breakthrough, technical matters, industrialization, and economic investigation are all welcome. For the already commercialized inorganic cells, recent improvements and achievements for next generation products can be presented.

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijp/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: