NOVELTY - High-efficiency solar cell for photovoltaic thermal hybrid applications, comprises a textured crystalline silicon solar cell, and deposited on the front side of the solar cell, an additional anti-reflective coating and a polymer film, where the rear-side and the edges of the solar cell are encapsulated in a second, electrically insulating polymer having a thermal expansion coefficient from 20 to 200 and a conductivity from 0.1 to 10 W/(mK).    USE - The high-efficiency solar cell is useful for photovoltaic thermal hybrid applications (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The high-efficiency solar cell has improved performance in view of the optical and electrical properties.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - High-efficiency solar cell for photovoltaic thermal hybrid applications, comprises a textured crystalline silicon solar cell and, deposited on the front side of the solar cell, an additional anti-reflective coating and a polymer film, where the rear-side and the edges of the solar cell are encapsulated in a second, electrically insulating polymer having a thermal expansion coefficient from 20 to 200 and a conductivity from 0.1 to 10 W/(mK), where the polymer film has a lower refractive index than the anti-reflective coating and the anti-reflective coating has a lower refractive index than the solar cell and the UV absorbance of polymer film and anti-reflective coating is lower than the UV absorbance of ethylene-vinyl acetate. INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are:    (1) photovoltaic thermal collector comprising the solar cell deposited on a metallic or plastic heat exchanger; and    (2) a method for producing the photovoltaic thermal collector, in which: (a) a heat exchanger having at least one flat surface is coated with an electrically insulating layer; (b) a solar cell is coated with an additional antireflective coating; (c) the coated solar cell is laminated on the backside with ethylene vinyl acetate and the heat exchanger and on the front-side with a fluoro-polymer; and (d) the laminated solar cell is integrated in a collector frame.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The drawing shows a schematic view of an inventive photovoltaic thermocollector.    Collector glass cover (1)    Static air layer (2)    Modules (3)    Absorber sheet (4)    Tubes (5)    Thermal insulation (6)    Frame (7)    Front polymer (8)    Solar cell specific coating (9)    Interconnected c-Si solar cell (10)    IEVA film (11)