A partnership between the French National Solar Energy Institute (INES) of Alternative Energies of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Enel Green Power (EGP) from Italy has achieved a new heterojunction (HJT) solar cell efficiency of 24.63% on the industry's standard wafer size with 156.75 mm side length (M2).
The partnership attained this efficiency level using standard PECVD and PVD layers on Meyer Burger production equipment. The cells were made with busbar free screen printing metallization. In a brief announcement, INES said the process is fully compatible with the very high throughput required in the industry.
Now, the team is aiming to implement the process in the production lines of EGP's Catania fab with the primary goal to reach the same performance and eventually attain an efficiency of 25% and beyond. In early 2019, Enel informed TaiyangNews that the first production cell of its Catania's facility reached an efficiency of 22.2%, as reported in TaiyangNews Report on Heterojunction Technology (see Heterojunction Solar Technology 2019 Report).
In October 2019, EGP launched 200 MW HJT bifacial solar PV annual production capacity at its Catania, Italy located 3SUN fab with Meyer Burger's HJT technology solution and equipment. Back then the company said power conversion efficiency of its bifacial modules produced exceeds the 20.5% level (see Enel Adds HJT Bifacial Solar Panel Production Line).