n-pert

Speaking exclusively to PV Tech, Jolywood president Lin Jianwei discusses the company’s progress over the past 12 years, how it has progressed its n-type TopCON technology to mass manufacturing, and what the future holds.

PV Tech is to hold the first ever conference, dedicated specifically to heterojunction (HJT) solar cell technology in manufacturing. The event will occur over two days, on 11-12 June 2020, in St. Petersburg in Russia.

During the past few years, the migration from multi to mono, replacing Al-BSF p-type cells with rear passivation layers (PERC), and having the capability of bifacial light absorption, have been the very obvious technology shifts seen within the PV industry.

Capital expenditure (capex) for c-Si manufacturing (covering ingot/wafer and cell/module stages) is forecast at approx. US$9 billion in 2019, consistent with levels seen during 2017 and 2018.

The fifth PV CellTech event takes place in Penang, Malaysia on 10-11 March 2020, and will be happening at a time when PV is going through its most dramatic realignment yet, in terms of manufacturers dominating the cell supply landscape, and the technologies being deployed in mega mass-production.

Major PV materials supplier Heraeus Photovoltaics has collaborated with German company, Cell Engineering to develop metallisation pastes for its ‘LECO’ (Laser Enhanced Contact Optimization) technology that can increase multiple solar cell architectures conversion efficiencies by up to 0.15%.

PV equipment and technology specialist, Amtech Systems is to sell its solar manufacturing equipment subsidiaries that included Tempress and SoLayTec to focus its semiconductor sector business.

An ongoing R&D collaboration between Imec and Jolywood (Taizhou) Solar Technology Co, the PV module manufacturing arm of major PV backsheet manufacturer Jolywood (Suzhou) Sunwatt Co, have reported an n-PERT (Passivated Emitter and Rear Totally diffused) bifacial solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 23.2%, a new record.

PV CellTech 2019 takes place in Penang, Malaysia on 12-13 March 2019, and the agenda of industry speakers is now complete, in what is set to be the most exciting PV CellTech conference since we launched the series back in 2016.

PV is increasingly becoming the cheapest energy source and therefore has become the energy source with the highest yearly capacity additions! Even in 2018, after some scepticism right after SNEC 2018, due to the announcement of the Chinese Government to stop supporting PV as intensively as in 2017, more than 100GW (109GW) have been installed worldwide (we actually bet a crate of beer on that!) and 125GW has been forecasted to be installed in 2019.