Solar Frontier’s process upgrades provide 14.1% aperture area efficiency

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  Incremental manufacturing process step improvements have led to CIS (copper, indium, and selenium) thin-film producer, Solar Frontier claiming its ‘S’ Series modules have an aperture area efficiency of 14.1% and a module efficiency of 13.0%.

Incremental manufacturing process step improvements have led to CIS (copper, indium, and selenium) thin-film producer Solar Frontier claiming its ‘S’ Series modules have an aperture area efficiency of 14.1% and a module efficiency of 13.0%. As a result of the efficiency improvements, the company said it was phasing out its 130W modules and replacing them with a product lineup spanning 140–160W.

“Our Kunitomi factory continues to improve its performance as evidenced by our new, highly-efficient, 160W modules,” commented Hiroshi Yoshida, VP of manufacturing at Solar Frontier. “We have a level of manufacturing excellence that stands as a great challenge to our competitors and assures our customers of high performance in our products. This will increase year by year.”

Solar Frontier also said that its “S” series modules now have a positive sorting of -0/+5Wp.

“The field results from more and more of our customers confirm our laboratory results, and this level of quality and performance will be the hallmark of our new lineup as well,” added Satoru Kuriyagawa, CTO of Solar Frontier. “The key to our advancements and the new lineup is actually hundreds of variables that we track and adjust. It is a very data-intensive process with ample potential for further improvements down the road.”