Vietnamese-American PERC based solar module maker Boviet Solar plans to now venture into N-TOPCon and heterojunction (HJT) solar cell technology, as well as undertaking development of 600W+ module, as part of its new research and development (R&D) initiatives.
The company currently has 1.5 GW of PERC PV cell manufacturing capacity and 1.5 GW monocrystalline monofacial and bifacial module capacity.
On the company's decision to venture into newer cell technologies, Boviet Solar's R&D Director Hui Huang said, "Technology is moving from P-type cell to N-type cell, new power classes of modules are now 600+W, and module technologies are moving to N-type TOPCon and HJT. We intend to remain at the forefront of researching and developing these technologies to remain a leader in the industry."
For N-TOPCon technology, Boviet counted the cost-effective feature of it being compatible with existing PERC cell lines. "Currently, the average efficiency of N-TOPCon solar cell technology in industrial production is 24.5%. The ultimate efficiency of N-TOPCon solar cells is about 28.7%, much higher than PERC's 25%, which is very close to the theoretical limit efficiency of monocrystalline silicon, 29.43%," it added. It did not provide a timeline for the expansion.
The other R&D project involves development of N-TOPCon high efficiency solar cell technology and advanced packaging technology to develop N-type 600W modules. These will have high-power, low-light attenuation and low-light response.
For HJT high efficiency solar cell technology, Boviet Solar said it will conduct testing on the production line in the future as it involves fewer and simpler production steps and is expected to become the next-generation mainstream technology with its efficiency limit of 27.5%.
Boviet Solar is researching these avenues in collaboration with USTH University, VNU University and HUST University in Vietnam and Nanchang University of China.
In addition, the module producer said it was rebranding its modules to be named after stars, instead of series of letters and numbers, so its monofacial modules are now the Gamma series and bifacial panels the Vega series. Expect all the company's future products to be named after stars too.
TaiyangNews picked up all 3 cell technologies—PERC, TOPCon, HJT—for our Virtual Conference on High Efficiency Solar Technologies in December 2021.
Recently, we also held another virtual conference on Pushing PERC To Its Limits to understand how to manufacture highest efficiency standard solar cells (see March 22: Pushing PERC Cells To Its Limits Conference).