Hybrid photovoltaic cells can basically be described as a composite of organic materials that consist of conjugated polymers, and inorganic materials (mainly CdSe, ZnO, TiO, and PbS). The function of the polymers is to absorb light as the donor and transport holes (an electron hole is the conceptual and mathematical opposite of an electron). Whereas the inorganic materials in the cell, are used as the acceptor and electron transporter in the structure. The culminating process generates a hole-electron pair on effect of sunlight, which is separated by a potential barrier (such as p-n junction), and hence manages to induce a current flow for production of clean electricity.
Hybrid solar cells have various advantages, especially in relation to their potential for being cost effective. Moreover, some of them incorporate both the PV and Thermal elements onto a single panel, for a photovoltaic thermal (or PV-T) collector. This in turn enables them to mitigate the heat for constant generation of electricity (conventional PV panels typically lose efficiency of up to 0.5 percent per Kelvin degree rise in panel temperature), and also allows for reduced roof space for the total solar installation.
– from ecofriend.com