After keeping the news under wraps for days, Canadian Solar has finally revealed its plans on Canada Day, July 1, 2020. The Canada-headquartered Chinese company has officially entered the 500 W club of solar modules by expanding its existing product portfolio in the high-efficiency monofacial and bifacial series.
HiKu5 & BiHiKu5 series with M6 wafers
Offering up to 500 W output, the company's new HiKu5 and BiHiKu5 series, which are monofacial and bifacial, respectively, are built with 156 half cells (78-cell equivalent). This 5 series will be available in both monocrystalline and polycrystalline cells and is built using the M6 wafer format. The best monocrsytalline variant has a 500 W rated output, while its polycrsytalline peer comes with 485 W as the highest power tag. The bifacial variants of the series have 10 W lower rated power. According to Candian solar, this 5 series will incorporate light- and elevated temperature-induced degradation (LeTID) mitigation technology. For its HiKu5 series, Canadian Solar claims these can lower the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) installation by up to 4%.
HiKu6 & BiHiKu6 series with M10 wafers
The difference with its HiKu6 and BiHiKu6 series is that it is built on the M10 wafer size of 182 mm, which was a recently proposed as a standard spec by a group of companies that includes Canadian Solar. This module series is exclusively offered in monocrystalline variant. The highest configuration of the series comes with the monofacial variant built with 156 half cells (78-cell equivalent) to attain a 590 W output power, while the 144 cells format's (72-cell equivalent) top product has a maximum power rating of 545 W. The bifacial range of the series, BiHiKu6 follows the same structure, but has 5 W less rated power than the corresponding monofacial range. Canadian Solar is offering up to 590 W output and module efficiency of up to 21.3%. It promises an output even higher than JinkoSolar's TigerPro module with up to 580 W. Canadian Solar claims these HiKu6 modules generate up to 2.7% higher energy yield over the module lifetime, reduce the balance of system (BOS) cost by up to 5.6% and reduce the LCOE by up to 4.5% for large scale installations.
The HiDM5 module builds on the company's Canada manufactured HiDM product line and is based on shingling module technology. This series will have power output of up to 405 W making it an 'ideal' module for residential installations with 37% higher rooftop system capacity compared to standard mono PV modules, according to Canadian. For all these new products, the company says, it is offering competitive warranties. It offers 12-year workmanship warranty for all modules, while power warranties for bifacial products are 30 years and for monofacial panels 25 years.
"As reflected in today's announcement, our commitment is to develop leading technology that will deliver more solar energy more cost-effectively," said Founder, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, Dr. Shawn Qu. "Our HiKu, BiHiKu and HiDM product ranges have always been at the forefront of PV module technology, and the launch of the new Series 5 and Series 6 modules is another important achievement as we continue to provide powerful, efficient and high-quality solar solutions."
Before Canadian Solar, several other PV manufacturers have launched 500 W modules apart from JinkoSolar including Risen Energy, Trina Solar, JA Solar, and very recently LONGi Solar.
Canadian Solar is party to the group of 7 PV manufacturers that have proposed M10 as the new industry standard silicon wafer size to ensure standardization of equipment manufacturing.