LONGi Pilot Project On Module Performance In India

• LONGi's bifacial & monofacial solar modules were tested in a pilot project conducted by TUV Rheinland in India's Chennai
• The study found all the four participating modules to report performance ratio of over 80% and over 100% for bifacial PERC and N-type bifacial modules
• Power generation gain of PERC bifacial modules was 19.21% and 20.12% for N-type bifacial modules
• Researchers claim that basis this study, PERC modules are likely to dominate the Indian PV market as production capacity expands and the cost of monocrystalline PERC cells and modules falls further

China's LONGi Solar reported the performance ratio (PR) value of its modules in the tropical monsoon climate of India's east coast to be above 80%, with its bifacial PERC and N-type bifacial modules showing PRs above 100%.

These results were published in the semi-annual report of German technical services company TÜV Rheinland and stem from a pilot project in India, among several others that the Chinese firm helped build in cooperation with third-party authorities to verify the energy gains of bifacial PERC modules in different environments.

Located in India's Chennai with its tropical wet and dry climate, the project used four types of LONGi modules for this pilot project under white gravel surface conditions, namely:

• bifacial PERC modules,
• multi-crystalline black silicon modules, both with frame
• monofacial PERC modules,
• N-type bifacial modules, both without frame

When compared with PERC monofacial modules, the power generation gain of the PERC bifacial modules was found to be 19.21% and that for N-type bifacial modules was 20.12% thanks to rear side power generation.

For N-type bifacial modules, it was 0.76% higher than P-type bifacial modules with the difference mainly caused by the edge of the frame according to the author's analysis.

Data accumulated by TÜV Rheinland over six months between September 2018 and February 2019 revealed the following:

• LONGi's monofacial PERC module generates more than 3% of the power generation compared to multi-crystalline black silicon module
• Energy gain of P-type PERC bifacial and N-type bifacial module can reach over 20% than a multi-crystalline black silicon module mounted on white gravel surface
• P-type bifacial PERC module and N-type bifacial module with higher bifaciality were found to have power generation performance at the same level
• Cost of P-type bifacial PERC is more competitive than N-type bifacial

As per the research, PERC modules are likely to dominate the Indian PV market soon with the expansion of production capacity and cost of monocrystalline PERC cells and modules comes down.

Among one of the several such projects, TÜV SÜD gave LONGi's bifacial PERC solar modules higher efficiency points compared to single sided PERC in a study released in October 2019 (see LONGi Shares Energy Gain Report For Bifacial Modules).