World record for solar technology

 Tina Solar of China sets a world record for the conversion efficiency of the HJT module

Chinese solar company Trina Solar has set a new world record for making super-efficient solar panels. China's Trina Solar (688599.SS), opens new tab has set a new world record for the conversion efficiency of a certain type of solar module, the company said in a statement. According to Reuters, the company has broken the world record for the %age of sunlight that a solar panel could convert into electricity. In laboratory tests, Trina's large surface area n-type fully passivated heterojunction (HJT) modules demonstrated an efficiency of 25.44%, according to the results certified by the Fraunhofer CalLab in Germany, a solar research body.

Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, whose lab held a solar cell efficiency record for more than 10 years, says that the new record proves that HJT solar technology has great potential to become next-generation technology for the sector. Passivation is a technology that covers defects on the surface of a solar cell, while cell efficiency refers to the percentage of solar energy hitting a device that is converted into usable electricity. Increasing cell efficiency can help reduce the size needed for solar installations as well as cut costs.   

Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, said the result demonstrated the potential of HJT solar technology, one of several contending to become the predominant next-generation technology for the sector. "In the long run it's all about efficiency, so even if some sequences are at the moment more costly than others, what tends to happen is that as the industry gets itself into a new technology the cost comes down quite quickly," Green said. Moreover, the CEO and chairman of the company, Gao Jifan, pledged that the company will continue to increase development in passivated solar technology to continue its leadership in the technology.

HJT remains a relatively small percentage of the market, estimated by solar consultancy InfoLink to make up 7% of high-efficiency solar cell capacity in 2024, 8% in 2025 and 9% in 2026. TopCON, or tunnel activated passive contact, cells are expected to make up the bulk of the market over the next five years. In addition to representing a record for HJT technology, the results are a new milestone for the photoelectric conversion efficiency of single-crystalline silicon solar cell modules, Trina said. As per the results certified by the solar research body, Fraunhofer CalLab, in Germany, the new n-type, fully passivated heterojunction (HJT) modules solar panel of the company achieved an impressive 25.44% efficiency rate in lab tests.