Akcome Hires Japanese Heterojunction Specialist

• Akcome has announced appointment of Dr. Seiichi Kiyama as the company's chief technical consultant
• Kiyama will guide Akcome's HJT technology improvement and development in his new role
• The Japanese researcher, according to Akcome, is the main inventor of HJT solar cell technology

Akcome Optronics Science & Technology Co., Ltd. has appointed Dr. Seiichi Kiyama of Japan as the company's chief technical consultant.  The Chinese solar cell and module producer emphasized Kiyama is a well-known name in heterojunction (HJT) solar cell technology research.

A statement from Akcome calls Kiyama the 'main inventor' of HJT cell technology crediting him to be the 1^st major researcher in Japan to have developed crystalline silicon solar cells, helping industrialize the technology. The company said Kiyama achieved a world record efficiency of 25.6% for HJT high efficiency solar cells.

Having graduated from Osaka University of Japan, Kiyama is a PhD in engineering, and previously worked with Panasonic Clean Energy Corporation, for many years the pioneer and leader in HJT solar cell development. However, recently Panasonic announced to terminate its solar production activities (see Panasonic Exiting Solar PV Production Business).

Akcome has brought in Kiyama at a time when it is focusing its resources on HJT high efficiency solar modules.

At Akcome, he will guide the company's technological improvement, especially for HJT solar cells while providing technical research and consultation for module technology. In November 2020, Akcome said it will build a 6 GW HJT solar cell and module fab with Jiangsu Taixing High-Tech Industrial Development Zone Management Committee, in 3 phases of 2 GW each (see China PV News Snippets: Akcome, Concord, Shanxi Coal).

Very recently, the company announced it achieved 24.2% average conversion efficiency for its iCell HJT cells for the 220 MW HJT cell production project phase I (see China PV News Snippets: Yicheng, JinkoSolar, Akcome).

Akcome's announcement on Kiyama's appointment in Chinese language was shared by the company as a stock exchange filing.

According to the company's website, Akcome has 3 manufacturing locations in Suzhou (Jiangsu province), Ganzhou (Jiangxi province) and Changxing (Zhejiang province) with total module manufacturing capacity of 3.8 GW in 2020 and 1.2 GW for solar cells.