Featured in Empowered with PV – 12-2017

Mind the gap

High efficiency cell technology: The slight performance advantage held by Taiwanese solar cell manufacturers appears to be coming to an end as Chinese tier-1 and tier-2 firms up their R&D spending in an effort to be fully vertically integrated. pv magazine looks at how this high efficiency technology race might impact the global PV industry.

By

Brian Publicover

08 Dec 2017

When it comes to PERC cells, Taiwanese manufacturers still enjoy a slight advantage over their Chinese competitors, but the gap is closing.

It has been an exciting autumn for advancements in Chinese solar cell technology. In October, Longi Solar – newly christened earlier this year as a tier-1 PV module supplier by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) – revealed that Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE CalLab had verified its 22.71% conversion efficiency record for monocrystalline passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) PV …

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