At the recently concluded SNEC Conference & Exhibition 2023 in China's Shanghai, the Chairman and President of pioneering TOPCon manufacturer DAS Solar Liu Yong talked to TaiyangNews Managing Director Michael Schmela in an exclusive interview as part of TaiyangNews & SNEC Solar Leadership Conversations (click on photo to watch video).
Sharing the background for the company that launched itself mostly betting on TOPCon when it came up on the global scene in 2018, Yong said it has been able to develop rapidly and survive precisely because it started with an upcoming technology. DAS Solar team primarily comes from research background and hence they knew n-type TOPCon is the way forward for PV technology.
DAS Solar aims to expand its n-type production capacity by 2023-end to over 30 GW total capacity; it operates a nominal 3 GW of PERC production presently.
Talking about the company's technology roadmap Yong said DAS Solar is right now in TOPCon 3.0 mass production and average efficiency is around 25.2%. By the end of 2023, it targets to reach 25.5% and thereafter also aim for 26% or even 27% over the next 2 years.
TOPCon has the potential to further evolve to reach such high efficiency levels but it would need new materials in terms of passivation materials and the cell structure can be optimized further, according to Yong. He added that beyond these levels, TOPCon would need a new cell scheme like tandem structure.
He also shared that DAS Solar is working with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia to work on a new cell structure. That's work in progress detailed of which Yong refused to share but TaiyangNews will be tracking the developments.
Watch the complete interview with DAS Solar Chairman and President Liu Yong and other SNEC exclusive executive interviews on TaiyangNews YouTube Channel.