LONGi Solar’s R&D Senior Manager, Heng Sun, outlined how the company's Hi-MO 9 outperforms conventional modules. He said that the company's modules achieve ultra-high efficiency, high power generation, and high reliability through comprehensive optimizations across wafers, cells, and modules, which ensure performance, structural, and safety reliability. By leveraging in-depth research into real-world scenarios, the company has also developed a range of scenario-based products, further enhancing full-lifetime reliability and delivering sustained value for investors.
Block your dates for the annual flagship TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2025 Virtual Conference! We pick one high-efficiency technology a day for the 4-day event, dividing it into Parts I and II. On December 3, we discuss Back Contact, TOPCon on December 4, Heterojunction on December 9, and Perovskite and Silicon Tandems on December 10. Join us as we go in-depth into the cell technology trends shaping the future of solar manufacturing. Registrations are already open here for Part I and here for Part II of the conference. See you soon!
Next up, TaiyangNews, in partnership with back contact PV specialist AIKO, will host an offline Solar Workshop on Back Contact Technology on November 13, 2025, in Munich, Germany. The session will explore Back Contact Technology and its potential in the European C&I and residential rooftop markets. This is an invitation-only event. Click here to register, and we will contact you.
In a session moderated by TaiyangNews’ Shravan Chunduri, panelists Ingrid Haedrich (Fraunhofer ISE), Rojen Malachi (GCL), and Xinrui An (Jietai Solar) discussed how current reliability standards handle emerging cell and module technologies. While cell testing is well addressed under IEC qualification, they called for additional module-level evaluations—particularly low-impact tests for glass quality, and glare and tint assessments for all module types.
Jietai Solar’s R&D Manager, Xinrui An, shares insights on the company’s latest cut-line technology aimed at improving PV module reliability and efficiency. Serving as a more versatile alternative to half-cut edge passivation (HEP), An said that the process minimizes laser-induced damage and edge recombination by locally etching and passivating the emitter area with AlOx/SiNx. The standard cut lines are about 300 μm wide, but can be customized to accommodate larger cutting tolerances as per client requirements.
Alejandro Coll Garcia, Product Manager for Southern Europe at DMEGC Solar, highlights how the company integrates reliability into its advanced PV module architectures. One of the key field challenges he points out is hail damage – broken glass after storms remains a recurring issue for many installations, especially as extreme weather events increase with climate change. DMEGC addresses this by optimizing module design, utilizing 3.2 mm glass on the front and 2.0 mm on the back, boosting protection and ensuring strong mechanical reliability.
Glass breakage continues to emerge as a key field failure issue, even in certified solar modules, noted Ingrid Haedrich, Head of Group Degradation Analysis and Modelling PV Modules at Fraunhofer ISE. She outlined potential preventive measures, including AI-based visual inspection, microscopic edge scanning, and transillumination with polarized light to evaluate glass stress uniformity. One wonders whether to harden modules against environmental stress, adapt the environment to protect them, or do both. Haedrich left the audience reflecting – will these measures be sufficient?
Rojen Malachi, Technical Support Director for Europe at GCL, emphasizes the company’s vertically integrated production – spanning a capacity of 30 GW for modules, 16 GW for n-type cells, 35 GW for wafers, and 480,000 tons for FBR silicon – giving it full control over the quality and reliability of its end products. Malachi presented the company’s next-generation back-contact module, GBC 2.0, which he said improves performance under shading by delaying bypass diode activation until around 20% shading, thanks to its optimized cell patterning and circuit layout, as compared to 10% in conventional modules. It also deals with hotspot risks with reverse-current operating control technology and enhances mechanical resilience using linear busbars that limit crack formation.
Bo Jin, Overseas Sales Manager at HANGZHOU FIRST, highlights the company’s encapsulation solutions for high-efficiency TOPCon solar PV modules. For TOPCon glass-glass modules, premium options include POE or EPE on the front side, while a cost-effective choice uses anti-acid S406P EVA on both sides. For glass-backsheet modules, the premium combination features FIRST TF4N POE on the front and low-acid EVA with a standard backsheet at the rear. To address UVID challenges in TOPCon cells, Bo Jin suggests applying UV cut-off or UV conversion films.
Keynote speaker Johannes Stang, Head of Solar Lab at TÜV Rheinland, shares that failure rates are being observed in recent solar projects. Nearly every qualification or test project showed some form of issue, many of which were identified during early measurements. Environmental stresses were a leading cause, often impacting mechanical integrity and electrical coordination due to design or material choices. Common problems included moisture, delamination, and degradation, such as PID and UID. Stang emphasizes that selecting the right materials and maintaining strong process control can help prevent such failures early.
“Exciting to see the levels of innovation in the solar PV industry, but the fear is that reliability should not become the trade-off for this rapid speed of innovation,” says Shravan Chunduri, Head of Technology at TaiyangNews, noting this is especially crucial in times of intense cost pressures. With this, the TaiyangNews Reliable PV Module Design 2025 Conference is now live!
TaiyangNews’ Shravan Chunduri will soon moderate a panel with Fraunhofer ISE’s Ingrid Haedrich, GCL’s Rojen Malachi, and Jietai Solar’s Xinrui An, discussing how far existing reliability standards can keep up with changing module designs and innovations. Stay tuned!
As PV makers explore novel applications and designs in a tough price environment, questions around quality and reliability take center stage. Over the next 3.5 hours, experts from research institutes, testing agencies, and manufacturers will share the latest developments and findings in this evolving field.
Welcome to TaiyangNews’ Reliable PV Module Design 2025 Conference! Follow our live coverage for the latest updates, insights, and expert discussions on ensuring module quality and reliability amid rising cost pressures. Haven’t joined yet? Register free and tune in here.