At the world's largest solar trade show SNEC 2023 in Shanghai, China, leading heterojunction (HJT) solar cell and module manufacturer Huasun's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dan Zhou was interviewed by TaiyangNews Managing Director Michael Schmela. The interview was part of our TaiyangNews & SNEC Solar Leadership Conversations, a series of interviews with executives from leading and innovative solar manufacturers.
Speaking about the company's decision to concentrate on HJT, Zhou said Huasun is a start-up having come up less than 3 years back, because of which it made sense for it to concentrate on a new technology to distinguish itself in the industry. Hence, HJT was the technology of choice.
The decision to go for HJT was also influenced by the technology's future prospects as PERC's presence wanes and it goes through various technology changes as cell size and cell power, especially in the last 3 to 5 years. Zhou says this wastes a lot of capex. HJT, on the other hand, will have a relatively longer life going forward.
Clear technology roadmap
In times of the sector is heading towards massive overcapacity expansions globally, Huasun too sees itself scaling up. "We now have 5 GW annual production capacity all the way from HJT specialized wafer, cell and module, and by the end of 2023, we'd be reaching 20 GW," said Zhou. "By the end of 2025, we will roughly reach around 40 GW."
Referring to the latest China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) figures, Zhou shared that by 2030 the world will have annual solar installations touching 1 TW with 1/3rd of that likely to be HJT. "So the future is bright even though currently we face the challenges of investing in a relatively new technology," he added.
As for HJT technology, Huasun will continue to invest in making it better. Sharing the company's technology roadmap, Zhou explained that while HJT 1.0 was all about amorphous silicon structure, for HJT 2.0 the company went in for front side microcrystalline thin film structure and introduced UV light transfer film.
Currently, it is in the HJT 3.0 phase where the manufacturer has refined the same structure from front side to double side microcrystalline thin-film and added technology to prevent moisture.
Moving forward, under HJT 4.0 Huasun plans to stick to the thin-film microcrystalline thin-film structure and introduce electrical coppering and go for zero-busbar configuration.
For HJT 5.0, Zhou revealed that Huasun plans to add back contact structure turning it from HJT to HBC. Tandem technology is also on its mind for which R&D efforts are ongoing.
Meanwhile, Huasun continues to work on reducing its manufacturing costs to bring it at par with PERC.
Rooftop solar does remain a major driver of HJT modules in the end market with its higher reliability and higher voltage and is increasingly preferred especially in Europe. Yet Zhou said the company sees a growing demand for HJT for utility scale solar installations as it is known to provide better output for regions with high temperatures.
At SNEC, Huasun said it will be signing newer GW scale orders and launch new products.
For the detailed interview with Huasun CEO Dan Zhou, click on the photo to watch the video on the TaiyangNews YouTube channel.
For further information on HJT, please check our recent Heterojunction Solar Technology 2023 report, which is available for free download here.