25.05% Record Efficiency For HJT M6 Solar Cell

Solar cell production equipment maker Suzhou Maxwell Technologies Co., Ltd. has reported achieving 25.05% efficiency for a heterojunction (HJT) solar cell, calling it a record for a large size cell designed for 'mass production'. It said the efficiency level has been certified by the German Institute for Solar Energy Research in Hameln (ISFH).
It was able to achieve the reported efficiency on a total area of 274.3 cm² on M6 (166mm) wafer size, produced with high efficiency equipment developed by the company in-house. The 25.05% efficiency is 2.5% points below what Maxwell calls as the theoretical conversion efficiency of HJT technology at 27.5%.
The company deploys low-cost PECVD, PVD, screen printing and LED light soaking equipment suitable for the production of HJT solar cells. While every tool has a role to play in the successful implementation of HJT production, PECVD is the key for attaining high efficiency and low cost, it said. "The company's HJT PECVD and supporting equipment project was launched in January 2019 and since then Maxwell has pioneered the development of a first generation of production capacity of 200 MW and a second generation of 400 MW of PECVD equipment," claimed the Chinese equipment makers, which is a market leader in the field of screen printers for solar cells.
It added that the power generation gain in a HJT module life cycle will be significant thanks to the technology having low degradation rate, excellent temperature coefficient, high bifaciality and good low-light response.
Huasun Energy recently inaugurated its new 500 MW HJT fab in China using 2 production lines of 250 MW each, of which one is completely built with production tools from Maxwell, while the other is from assorted vendors (see HJT Fully Made In China).
According to TaiyangNews' Heterojunction Solar Technology 2020 Report, launched during our High Efficiency Solar Technologies Conference in December 2020, at least 5 HJT makers have attained average efficiency of 24% at cell level (see Efficiency Update For HJT Cell). In December 2020, GS-Solar claimed 25.2% highest efficiency for 'mass production' HJT solar cell design, certified by Germany's TUV Nord (see 25.2% Efficiency For GS-Solar HJT Solar Cell).
The TaiyangNews HJT report can be downloaded for free here.