Featured in Moving in circles – 09-2024

Laser focus on degradation and efficiency

Technological change can occur quickly in solar manufacturing. This has been the case with the laser-enhanced contact opening (LECO) process, which is well-suited to tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar production. With its application occurring at a breakneck pace, however, there are signs there may be trouble ahead.

By

Jonathan Gifford

06 Sep 2024

Qcells and Cell Engineering worked together to create a tool that makes LECO production viable. | Photo: Qcells

Around the mid 2010s, a UK-based upstart PV manufacturing analyst firm examined crystalline silicon manufacturing technology and its value chain. It observed technology and market trends coalescing around a rapid switch to monocrystalline technology. As is abundantly clear today, the analysis was right.The company was Exawatt, from Sheffield, England, and it has since been acquired …

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