Progress Of TOPCon Technology In 2024

TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES Analysis 2024 looked into module efficiency development for different cell technologies – IBC, HJT, TOPCon, and PERC. While our last couple of articles looked into the progress of IBC and HJT, we analyze the efficiency progress of TOPCon technology in the present article (see IBC Technology: Efficiency Leader With Limited Representation In 2024).

The efficiency band for HJT has changed twice in the last 2 years. In 2024, the top efficiency increased from 23.02% at the beginning of the year to 23.18% in August. The efficiency range for the TOPCon stream changed twice in 2024, and that too at the upper limit. The best TOPCon efficiency was 22.65% in January, improved to 22.8% in February, and then improved to 23% in November. The lower limit, however, remained the same at 22.1% throughout the year. On the other hand, the highest level in 2023 remained at 22.65% all along the year, while the bottom limit changed 4 times. The first change was in April, from 21.9% to 22%, then in June improved marginally to 22.05%. The level dropped slightly to 22.02% right the next month and remained so till November, before rising to 22.1%.

Going into product-level details, TOPCon was the most active in terms of changes, especially with companies jumping to the next efficiency levels. In January 2024, the TOPCon section was led by JinkoSolar’s 21.65% module, a position it held since September 2022. Astronergy’s TOPCon module also shared this spot with the same efficiency. Also, the major changes in January, DMEGC joined in at the 22.5% level, where a bulk of 6 TOPCon products were already listed in December 2023. With the addition of DMEGC, the count increased to 7. DMEGC’s addition came about with it increasing its best TOPCon module’s efficiency by 0.05% absolute from the December level of 22.45%. In February, Tongwei raised the bar to 22.8%, breaking through the 22.65% level enjoyed by JinkoSolar for over a year. In March, Astronergy’s top TOPCon module also reached the same level, but jumping from its previous highest level of 22.65%. DMEGC also improved its product’s best efficiency to 22.6% from 22.5%. In May, there were 2 changes in the TOPCon section for TOP SOLAR MODULES: EGing improved the efficiency from 22.45% to 22.5% and Kalyon’s TOPCon module entered our list with an efficiency of 22.38%. While there was no change in June, July saw a further increase in TOPCon efficiency level to 22.8%, attained by JA Solar’s product. The next 3 months saw no activity from the TOPCon section, but 3 changes took place in November. First, the top efficiency increased once again, this time by JA Solar, to the 23% milestone. This was followed by Astronergy, tuning up its best commercial TOPCon module efficiency by 0.1% absolute to 22.9%. The third change was from SolarSpace, increasing its best TOPCon product efficiency from 22.45% to 22.65%. These figures continued into December unchanged.

In 2023, JinkoSolar’s claim to the TOPCon throne with 22.65% efficiency was unopposed for the entire year. The next highest efficiency level of 22.53% belonged to Jolywood; while there were changes elsewhere, Jolywood continued at this level not only through 2023 but also in 2024. The other products from this technology stream to feature in January 2023 were: JA Solar’s 22.4% efficiency module, 22.1% products from DAS Solar and Astronergy, a 22.05% efficiency module from EGing, Qcells at 22%, and Trinasolar with its 21.9% efficiency module.

The next change was in March with Canadian Solar entering the list with a 22.3% model, which was improved only once in June to 22.5%. Tongwei also entered in March with its 22.4% efficiency TOPCon module, which it improved the very next month to 22.5% and remained at this level for the rest of the year. A third change to occur in March was Astronergy improving its TOPCon product efficiency from 22.1% to 22.4%. The company improved the efficiency of its top TOPCon offering 3 more times over the rest of the year – 22.5% in May, 22.6% in September, and 22.65% in December to share the top spot in this category with JinkoSolar (see HJT Efficiency Trends In TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES 2024 Analysis).

While there were no new entries in April, a few companies improved the top efficiencies of their TOPCon products. One of them was JA Solar improving the efficiency of its DeepBlue 4.0 Pro series from 22.4% to 22.5%, which stayed at this level for the rest of the year. Trinasolar also improved the efficiency of its product first to 22.3% from 21.9%, and again in June to 22.5% to remain there for the rest of the year. DAS Solar followed the same path, improving the efficiency to 22.3% in April, but from a higher level of 22.1%, and staying at 22.3%for a little while before jumping to 22.5% in July. DMEGC entered the TOPCon segment in June with 22.45% and improved it to 22.45% the very next month, which was its last change for the year.

In July, 5 companies were added with their TOPCon products, all featuring above 22% efficiency. Qn-SOLAR, Suntech, and GCL SI maintained their efficiencies of 22.45%, 22.4%, and 22.3%, respectively, without changes until December. Runergy, entering with 22.4%, improved to 22.5% in December, while SolarSpace, initially at 22.02%, upgraded to 22.45% in the same timeline. In addition to these new companies added to the list, EGing also improved the efficiency of its product from 22.05% first to 22.44% in June and then again marginally to 22.45% in July without any changes till December. URECO joined in August with 22.45% efficiency, which remained the same until the end of the year. In October, Yingli and CECEP joined with 22.36% and 22.1%, respectively, and their efficiencies remained unchanged for the next 2 months.

The TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES 2024 Report summarizes the key findings from over 24 editions published during 2023 and 2024. Download the free report here.