GCL Photoelectric Materials, a subsidiary of GCL Group specializing in the research and production of perovskite solar cells and panels, has announced that its 1 m x 2 m perovskite single-junction module has achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.04%.
The group said that the China National Institute of Metrology has certified the result. When it was first unveiled in March, the module had an efficiency of 16.02%. “We are currently planning to raise the efficiency of the panel to over 18%,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine at the time, noting that the module was being made on a pilot production line.
The 320 W panel presented in May had a size of 2,005 mm x 1,005 mm x 35 mm and a weight of 34.5 kg. It uses an encapsulant film based on polyolefin elastomer (POE) and 3.2 mm semi-tempered glass.
The group's unit GCL-Perovskite switched on a 100 MW production line for these panels in September 2021. Ever since, however, there has been limited progress in scaling up production to the GW scale. To support its expansion plans, the company secured funds in December 2022 and is currently preparing for another funding round. In addition to GCL Group, Sequoia Capital China and Temasek Holdings are among the recent investors.
“The construction of a GW scale production line for mass production of perovskite modules is imminent,” GCL-Perovskite CEO, Fan Bin, told pv magazine. “The first phase of this program is expected to be completed by the end of 2024, with an annual production capacity of 500 MW.”
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He noted that perovskite cells manufactured at the factory will be 30% cheaper than crystalline silicon solar cells.
GCL-Perovskite is also aiming to achieve a power conversion efficiency of over 26% for perovskite-silicon tandem solar modules by the end of next year.
In the solar perovskite business, the manufacturer operates through its subsidiaries Kunshan GCL Photoelectric Materials Co., Ltd. and Suzhou GCL Nano Technology Co., Ltd.
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But the real story is they believed they have solved, to some extent, the Perovskite degradation issue that has prevented the industry from commercializing the technology to date. If they plan to release a module using Perovskites, they must have found some reasonable solution to allow for an acceptable degradation rate. I am VERY interested to learn more about the Power Performance Warranty associated with these modules. That would be a huge scoop!