The hunt for high efficiency – 06-2025

Leading PV manufacturers are eyeing the next step in PV technology, pushing single-junction cells close to their practical limits, and even looking beyond these at perovskite tandem devices and the promise of efficiencies well past the 30% mark.

Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cell technology is expected to account for around 80% of the PV module market this year. But its time at the top could be short lived, as innovation starts to bring down the production of high efficiency rivals such as back contact.

Alongside these technical developments, China is introducing energy market reforms expected to have a profound impact on solar, and driving an installation rush in the first half of 2025.

Though tariffs limiting access to the United States market are nothing new for solar manufacturers in China, the escalating trade war could have implications far across the renewable energy space, to the supply of critical materials used to make batteries, and the large PV manufacturing capacities built up in Southeast Asia, primarily to serve demand in the United States.

Other topics in this issue:

• Spotlight on Southeast Asia: Among other countries in the region, Indonesia and Malaysia are emerging as bright spots on the solar map. pv magazine reports on the unique challenges and opportunities that developing solar in each of these countries presents.
• Submerged storage: Immersion in a dielectric fluid is an effective cooling strategy for bigger, denser batteries on the market today, but it comes with its own set of complexities.
• Module quality roundup: Recent concerns surrounding ultraviolet-induced degradation point to a need for updated testing procedures. And the combination of larger modules, thinner glass, and weaker frames is adding up to increased reports of glass breakage in the field.
• The best Lead plans: Solar and battery factory equipment manufacturer Wuxi Lead Intelligent Co. Ltd. and its technology-forward approach to the crowded manufacturing marketplace.