The paper briefly discusses the current situation in the field of traditional and unconventional photovoltaic materials and solar cells. It emphasizes the fact that the main basic achievements in the field of solid-state solar photovoltaics were gained at least two decades ago and the further progress focused on the improvement of cell parameters and technological aspects. Finally, the article concludes that this scientific area has nearly fulfilled its historical task. Indeed, the last decade has brought many new achievements in the field of the alternative, molecular-based materials. The future of solar energy conversion seems to be mainly connected with chemistry, chemical physics and chemical engineering but not with solid-state physics as in the twentieth century. The paper gives also a short overview of some promising organic semiconductors, fullerenes and TiO2 nanocrystalline structures used now in a new generation of molecular solar cells.