perc

‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Canadian Solar is launching its first monocrystalline PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) based module at SNEC PV Power Expo this week.

Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger has received a major PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) upgrade order from ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment specialist SoLayTec, a subsidiary of Amtech Systems has received a number of new tool orders from a range of customers planning p-type PERC, n-type IBC and bi-facial solar cell production in 2016.

Integrated PV module manufacturer REC Solar has said that it would migrate all production at its manufacturing facility in Tuas, Singapore to its half-cut PERC cell technology, used for its ‘TwinPeak’ series modules.

Integrated PV manufacturer REC Solar is to invest a total of $200 million Singapore dollars (US$182.3 million) in expanding and upgrading production at its facilities in Singapore. The company also plans to invest a further US$50 million in R&D activities at the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), with emphasis on a type of PV module.

According to SolarWorld’s 186-page annual report for 2015, and a presentation by Dr. Holger Neuhaus, Managing Director, SolarWorld Innovations GmbH at the inaugural PV CellTech conference held in Malaysia last week, high-efficiency products will be the key focus of its expanded manufacturing capacity and technology migrations in 2016.

The second day of our inaugural PV CellTech conference in Kuala Lumpur on 17 March 2016 turned out to be equally informative, engaging and thought-provoking as day one. Among the many takeaways from the two-day event in general, the final session addressed head-on one of the most hotly debated issues in the industry today – the technology roadmap!

PV manufacturing capacity expansions planned this year are expected to push production levels beyond anticipated demand in 2016, creating further cost pressures for suppliers.

PV module manufacturer SolarWorld has started producing its first bifacial Bisun modules at its US manufacturing facility in order to test their capability against standard modules using advanced p-type mono-PERC cell architecture.

There is no more doubt that PERC is becoming a mainstream technology in standard industrial solar cell production. The question arising is “what is next?”