Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Back contact cells, long seen by many as too complex or costly for mainstream PV manufacturing, are a growing industry trend in 2025. Mark Hutchins stopped by Aiko’s booth, where Claudio Godinho, Europe Service Director at Aiko, treated us to live demonstrations of how the company’s back contact PV modules perform under conditions including partial shading, high temperatures, and mechanical stress.

pv magazine visited Longi’s booth at Intersolar in Munich and had a quick chat with Charles Yiang, President of Distributed Generation Business Group. He visually showed both sides of the 27.81% hybrid interdigitated back contact (HIBC) crystalline silicon solar cell that a few weeks ago achieved the world record efficiency for single-junction silicon solar cells.

Japan-based startup PXP Corporation and JGC Japan Corporation, a unit of JGC Corporation, are collaborating on a 1 kW one-year project to trial lightweight chalcopyrite panels in Yokohama City.

Scientists in Turkiye claim to have developed a nickel-based TOPCon solar cell with a minimal silver content and almost the same efficiency as fully silver metallized counterparts. The device uses a new nickel contact method that requires a trace of silver of only 0.5 mg/W.

Swedish thin film solar specialist Midsummer announced the order of a SEK 143.5 million ($14.8 million) turnkey line with a capacity for 15 MW from an undisclosed Swedish industrial and defense group.

pv magazine is compiling a guide to home solar installations, aimed at those who are interested in installing but are new to the market and want to make an informed decision. We have spoken to associations, installers and industry specialists in major solar markets across the globe to compile best practice guidance and advice that aims to be applicable to home solar installations anywhere in the world.

Indian solar manufacturers are exploring hybrid solutions like BC-TOPCon to bridge tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) and back-contact (BC) technologies, aiming to optimize efficiency while leveraging existing infrastructure.

Chinese battery giant CATL surged 12.55% on its Hong Kong trading debut after raising HKD 35.6 billion ($4.6 billion), marking the world’s largest listing in 2025. The offering drew strong demand from strategic and cornerstone investors, boosting CATL’s market capitalization to HKD 1.34 trillion.

Tristan Erion-Lorico, VP sales and marketing at Kiwa PVEL, spoke with pv magazine Editor Marian Willuhn at Intersolar Europe 2025 about rising module failures in lab tests this year, citing glass breakage and UV degradation in tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules as key quality concerns.

Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules continued to dominate the PV market at The smarter E Europe 2025, but pv magazine Magazine Director Mark Hutchins and CRU Group Senior Research Analyst Molly Morgan found emerging cell and module concepts gaining ground on the show floor.