This TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES H1-2024 report analyzing solar panels that are commercially available from integrated module manufacturers. A 4th of its kind, this report summarizes the key findings from 30 editions of our monthly ranking of top solar panels published on our website published between early 2022and June 2024.
As with the previous reports, this publication also fundamentally analyzes efficiency and power data – 2critical features of solar modules. We assess improvements across various categories, including efficiency ranges, cell technology, and company performance. Over the last 2.5 years, both the number of participating companies and the number of products have significantly increased, from 19 in our first edition to 57 today.
Efficiency is the parameter to differentiate the potential of a solar module – and that's why it is the key criterion for our module ranking, even though the ultimate performance obviously depends on more characteristics. While the top efficiency increased only by 0.1% absolute from 22.7% to 22.8% throughout 2022, the following year witnessed a more significant change of 1.2% absolute, followed by another 0.2 percentage point increase in the first half of 2024. All this amounts to an impressive cumulative improvement of 1.5% absolute efficiency over the last 30 months. China's cell and module manufacturer Aiko has spearheaded these substantial efficiency leaps since it joined our ranking in early 2023.
We also investigated the progress of top efficiencies within each of the 4 major commercially available cell technologies: IBC, HJT, TOPCon, and PERC. IBC has always excelled among these with its top efficiency improving from 22.7% to 24.2%. The second highest efficiency improvement was from HJT-based modules at over 0.8% absolute, improving from 22.2% to23.02%, which is where it has remained since September 2023. TOPCon followed, but its best products only experienced a slight uplift from 22.53% to 22.65% by end of 2023, and to 22.8 in February 2024. Similarly, PERC has hardly seen any efficiency changes in the last 2.5 years, as today's top level of 21.7% was already reached in the second month of our coverage, in February 2022,slightly up from 21.6% in January 2022.
In chapter 4, For easier analysis, as we dig deeper into efficiency, we have split them into 4 bands: above 22.5%, 22%to 22.5%, 21.7% to 22%, and 21.5% to 21.7%. The analysis includes how the count of products listed in each of these bands developed over the last 2.5 years. We also illustrate how each of the listed companies increased efficiencies for their top products in these 4 efficiency categories.
We further analyzed the efficiency progress with respect to each cell technology, showing how the products of the listed companies sorted according to cell technology have progressed in the last 30 months.
Power is the other key metric of analysis in this report. For ease of analysis and also to reflect the categorization of products according to applications, we have divided the products into 3 power classes – less than 500 W, 500 to 600 W, and above 600 W. Similar to efficiency, we present the top power ratings in the last 30 months and the top power of each cell technology. Overall, HJT is the power leader with Huasun and Tongwei being the companies offering the most powerful commercial modules – reaching 715 W.
The report also includes summary tables elaborating on the efficiency and power advancements achieved by each company over the time of their listing.
As a further development of our TOP SOLAR MODULES Listing, we have created an annual EFFICIENCY LEADERS list. Those module manufacturers featured in the top 10 of the TOP SOLAR MODULES list for at least 6 months of a calendar year are qualified to apply for a badge of excellence.
This is the executive summary of TaiyangNews latest report on TOP SOLAR MODULES H1/2024, which can be downloaded for free here.