JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. today announced that the rated power of its solar modules assembled with 60 multi-crystalline silicon ("multi-Si") cells has reached a new milestone of above 280W. Also today, Trina Solar Limited announced that its State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology of China has set new world records for high efficiency p-type and n-type silicon solar cells.
The newly-achieved result from JA Solar, which has been independently confirmed and certified by TUV Rheinland of Germany's Shanghai Testing Center, sets a record-high >17.2% conversion efficiency to date for the PV panels consisting of 60 regular industrial size (156x156 mm2) multi-Si cells and using a single standard junction box.
"This latest result of above 280W output power achieved from multi-Si modules with 60 cells is the continued effort of our R&D follows JA Solar's recently announced progress in reaching new efficiency record of multi-Si solar cells." said Mr.Jian Xie, president of JA Solar, "this new milestone once again demonstrates JA Solar's devotion in enabling cost-effectively manufacturing high-performance solar cells and modules to meet the growing demand for high-performance solar power products."
"The output power of these record-setting solar modules we've just made can be further improved by fine tuning our module assembly process and encapsulation materials," added by Mr.Yong Liu, Chief Operation Officer of JA Solar. "At least another five watts increase is definitely achievable. That will add significant value for our down-stream customers in terms of increasing power generation and reducing installation cost."
Trina Solar’s p-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell on an industrial Cz wafer, which integrates advanced technologies including back surface passivation and local back surface field, reached an efficiency of 21.40% (156×156 mm). This result has been independently confirmed by Fraunhofer ISE CalLab in Germany. The same advanced cell technologies on a high quality multi-crystalline Si wafer resulted in a new champion p-type multi-crystalline silicon solar cell with an efficiency of 20.53% (156×156 mm(2)), as independently confirmed by the National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Product Quality (CPVT) in Wuxi, China. Both results established new world records for mono and multi p-type silicon solar cells with passivated rear surface and local contact, on 6" substrates and fabricated with an industrial process. These cells are commonly called iPERC cells.
The n-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell with an Interdigitated Back Contact ("IBC") structure and industrially feasible production process achieved an efficiency of 22.9% on a 156×156 mm n-type Cz wafer as independently tested by Japan Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories (JET). This marks another milestone in the development of IBC solar cells and comes shortly after the demonstration of a laboratory IBC solar cell with a 24.4% efficiency developed through Trina Solar's collaboration with the Australian National University's (ANU) Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems in March this year.
To the Company's knowledge, these total-area efficiency results, independently verified by external laboratories, affirm these cells to be in their categories the most efficient silicon solar cells made by industrially feasible production processes on 156mm x 156mm substrates for both p-type (mono & multi) and n-type (mono) substrates that have been tested anywhere in the world to date.
"We are very pleased to announce these new efficiency results achieved by Trina Solar's researchers at the State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology," said Dr. Pierre Verlinden, Vice President and Chief Scientist of Trina Solar. "Though these technologies are not currently in production, they will be part of our future commercialized Honey Plus and IBC products. Our aim is to continuously integrate technological developments into our PV products, which are currently commercialized or would be in the future, to further drive down the product cost, strengthen our competitive advantages and provide affordable solar power to the world. We believe that innovation is core to Trina's sustainable growth and long-term success. Our focus remains on developing innovative and cutting-edge solar power products and technologies to strengthen our leading position as a premium PV manufacturer."
