Three leading solar PV module manufacturers from China—JA Solar, JinkoSolar and LONGi Green Energy, —came together to organize a conference to discuss application of '182mm' high efficiency solar module technology with the aim to make it the industry's mainstream size. The 3 giants also announced that in 2021 they will sport annual production capacity of 54 GW for their modules based on M10 wafers/cells with 182mm side length.
During their 182 Module and System Technology even in Shanghai in November, the 3 companies joined their forces to promote the development 182mm modules, achieving product innovation and technological progress 'so as to accomplish the goal of customer value focused for better LCOE'.
The conference brought together inverter companies, tracker manufacturers, power design institutes, EPC companies and 3rd party certification agencies to make a comprehensive analysis of the design concept, production cost, industrial support, system application and product certification of the 182mm components.
"The 182 module basically perfectly matches the existing industry supply chain specifications and electrical system. At the same time, in terms of the cost of electricity, the 182 module is better than that due to lower system cost, better power generation capacity and reliability than modules based on 210 mm format. 182 mm based modules are the optimal choice for large ground power stations with flat terrain," said Li Shaotang, Senior Product Manager of LONGi.
This year LONGi Group, also the world's largest wafer manufacturer, released its new module series Hi-MO 5 using 182mm wafer format and 540 W power rating. In 2021, the company plans for Hi-MO 5 to account for nearly 1/3rd of its total shipments in 2021 (see LONGi: Hi-MO 5 To Account For 30% Shipment In 2021).
Yu Hanbodao, Senior Manager for Global Product at the world's largest module maker JinkoSolar, argued that compared with the 55P version of the 210 mm module, the 182 mm module can reduce the line loss by 0.21%. "In terms of BOS cost, 182 mm can bring about 2.6 cents/watt of savings compared with 210 mm based modules. Through different dimensions contrast power cost, BOS cost and IRR, 182 products are the best choice."
The 3 companies believe there is a good enough supply chain of 182mm products in the market. They expect that in 2021 the production capacity of crystal pullers, glass and films that are needed for ingot-to-module making of the 182mm based variety can all supply products that will be above 50% while the proportion of crystalizer pull will be as high as 91.7%.
"The current module mass production efficiency has reached more than 21%. Compared with the 158/166 products in terms of transportation, each container can hold about 10% to 20% more watts", emphasized Wang Mengsong, Senior Product Technical Expert of JA Solar. "More importantly, 182 products have multiple qualified suppliers in each process of crystal pulling, slicing, cell, and modules," he added.
JA Solar has started 5 GW solar cells and 5 GW module production using 182mm wafer at Yiwu Industrial Park in China under phase I (see JA Solar Starts 10 GW Cell & Module Production In Yiwu).
LONGi Solar, JinkoSolar and JA Solar are all part of a new group launched in June 2020 to adopt the M10 silicon wafer size (182mm x 182mm) as the new standard for the development of silicon cells and modules (see Group Proposes M10 As New Silicon Wafer Standard Size).
JinkoSolar, JA Solar and LONGi Solar will all present on the first day (Dec. 1, 14-17:00 CET) of the upcoming TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Conference with the focus on "PERC Modules with M10/182 mm Cells Towards Very High Efficiency Products." Join us -and register for free here.