Trina Solar Limited announced its State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology of China has set a new record for industrial high-efficiency p-type mono-crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells.
The record-breaking p-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell was fabricated on a large-size industrial boron-doped Cz-Si substrate with an advanced Honey Plus process that integrated both front and back surface passivation. The 156×156 mm [2] solar cell reached a total-area efficiency of 22.13%. This result has been independently confirmed by the Fraunhofer ISE CalLab in Germany.
This efficiency record breaks the previous record of 21.40% for the same type of solar cell that was also established by the State Key Laboratory of Trina Solar in 2014, demonstrating an impressive efficiency improvement of 0.73 percentage points within only one year.
“We believe that this is the highest efficiency ever reported to date for a p-type industrial solar cell,” said Dr. Pierre Verlinden, Vice-President and Chief Scientist of Trina Solar.”This Honey Plus solar cell, fabricated with a low-cost industrial process, sits on the efficiency scale which is just 2.87% below the world record of 25% established by the University of New South Wales with a 2x2cm [2] laboratory solar cell. In 2015, our R&D teams have achieved two significant records with PERC solar cell technologies: we reached an efficiency of 21.25% with multi-crystalline silicon PERC cells, followed a few weeks later with a 22.13% efficiency record for mono-crystalline silicon cells. This also demonstrates the enormous potential of p-type substrates.”
Dr. Pierre Verlinden continued: “Our goal is to continue pushing technological innovations and implementing laboratory breakthroughs into commercial production. We will continue to develop high efficiency solar cell products to further reduce the cost of photovoltaic power generation. At Trina Solar, we are committed to research and innovation of advanced photovoltaic technology, with a vision for the solar electricity to be as competitive as traditional baseload fossil fuel power generation.”