R&D Director of Fusion New Materials, a solar PV paste producer, Jasmine Chen lists cost, efficiency and reliability as the 3 primary reasons for HJT’s higher cost compared to TOPCon, something that the company says it attempts to address with its PV paste solutions. Chen was speaking on day 2 of the 4-day TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2024 Conference.
For HJT, Chen noted that cell manufacturers try to control costs by using narrow screen openings and thinner fingers. To cater to the high demand for such solutions, Fusion has been able to bring down the content of pure silver in its silver-coated copper paste to 55%.
As part of its cost reduction roadmap for HJT fingers, Fusion has developed a new technology with only 20% silver content. Going forward, it targets to lower the silver content to under 10% in its silver-coated copper paste by Q2 2025, and also introduce a pure copper paste.
Chen explained that compared to a 100% silver paste, a 50:50 silver and copper paste leads to around 0.01% efficiency loss, but up to 35% cost reduction. Bringing silver content down to 20% vis-à-vis copper’s 80%, the efficiency loss will range from 0.05% to 0.10% and a cost reduction of up to 50%. Fusion’s portfolio also comprises a perovskite cell paste.
For more presentation videos and conference summaries for all 4 days of the TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2024 Conference, click here for days 1 and 2, and here for days 3 and 4.