Trina Solar from China has announced a maximum efficiency of 25.5% for its self-developed 210mm x 210mm high efficiency i-TOPCon cell, claiming it to be a new world record for the efficiency of large-area industrialized N-type monocrystalline silicon i-TOPCon cells.
The efficiency has been certified by 3rd party testing by the Chinese Academy of Metrology.
Trina said the achievement was declared by its State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Science and Technology that managed to overcome the technical difficulties of selective boron emitter, large-area tunneling silicon oxide and doped polysilicon preparation, and high efficiency hydrogen passivation for the efficiency. No other details were shared.
Its engineers said on the N-type Czochralski monocrystalline silicon wafer substrate with high minority carrier lifetime, the maximum efficiency of large-area 210 cells is 25.5%.
"This is the 23rd time Trina Solar has set and refreshed the world record, and has led the innovation and development of photovoltaics with a series of 'firsts'," stated the company.
Trina Solar made this world record by breaking the previous highest level of 25.25% achieved by JinkoSolar for a large size industrial TOPCon cell. This is not to mix up with the Ningbo Institute of Materials at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which announced a 25.53% efficiency in November 2021. While the Ningbo announcement missed to detail on the cell size, the given values of Isc and Jsc indicate it was a small R&D cell of 4 cm2 and cannot be compared to the Trina Solar and Jinko Solar's larger size cells.
TaiyangNews' TOPCon Solar Technology Report 2021 edition delved deep into growing interest in high-efficiency TOPCon as a natural successor of currently ruling PERC cell technology. The report is available for free download here.