The presented study gives an integrated overview on the prospects of glow discharge (GD) methods in the chemical analysis of photovoltaic (PV) materials. With a focus on recent research and important PV materials, analytical methods for GD-MS, GD-TOF-MS and GD-OES are discussed. Each exemplary study carried out will point out the most suitable GD technique for the problem in hand, at the same time showing ways to increase analytical accuracy and to overcome typical instrumental restrictions. Material analyses from thin films to ready to use modules were carried out, showing the reader the application potential of GD methods in a PV development or production process. For the fist time novel cell concepts based on crystalline silicon on glass and silicon nanowires are analyzed by GD_OES, revealing precisechemical information on the devices.