In this paper we present our latest progress in fabricating high quality crystalline silicon thin film solar cells on glass. Large silicon grains are directly formed via electron-beam induced liquid phase crystallization (LPC) from a nanocrystalline precursor film. The LPC process is carried out on an amorphous SiO2 layer, and both a high quality self-passivating interface and excellent electronic bulk properties are obtained. Solar cells with stable efficiencies of 11.5% and open-circuit voltages well above 600 mV with a maximum value of 656 mV are presented. So far, such high VOC values have only been achieved on wafer-based silicon solar cells. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.