A research project to identify solar cell conversion losses and provide commercial solutions, which was initiated in December 2017 by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), has attracted ‘Silicon Module Super League' (SMSL) leader JinkoSolar.

The project, which is being lead by the Australian National University (ANU) and The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has attracted $29.2 million in funding and includes BT Imaging, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Sinton Instruments, Norwegian Crystals, Topsil Global Wafers, MiaSole Hi-Tech Corp and Tesla.

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Although much is known about cell to module losses, the research program will include the entire supply chain, from silicon ingot growth, wafer, cell and module production. Also, new methods for detecting and eliminating defects in silicon modules are expected to be developed, and then applied in manufacturing.

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