LONGi Announces Impressive Tandem Solar Cell World Record

• LONGi says it has become the 1st Chinese company to have achieved a world record efficiency for crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells 
• Its 33.9% efficiency breaks the previous highest efficiency record of 33.7% held by Saudi Arabia's KAUST 
• LONGi has improved on its previous highest efficiency of 33.5% that it announced for this configuration only few months ago

Tandem solar cell technology's commercialization chances just got brighter after the world's leading solar PV manufacturer LONGi Green Energy Technology announced achieving a world record efficiency for crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells. 

The vertically integrated solar company said it has secured a certification for the 33.9% efficiency achieved for its independently developed tandem cells from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). 

LONGi added that it has broken the previous world record of 33.7% achieved by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in May 2023. 

The Chinese manufacturer has expanded the efficiency for this configuration from its own 33.5% achievement announced during Intersolar Europe 2023 (see LONGi Tandem Cell Record). 

According to the LONGi, this is the 1st time that a Chinese company has announced the world record efficiency for this configuration; however, it does not share any more details about how the improved efficiency was reached. 

Announcing the achievement at a press conference in China, LONGi Founder and President Li Zhenghuo stressed on the significance of the 33.9% mark, saying that the theoretical efficiency limit of crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cells can go up to 43%, making it a highly desired PV technology of the future. 

While such the record efficiency are typically achieved small areas, LONGi's research group is adapting the technology on lager surface area in parallel, to make it relevant for the commercialization. Reliability is yet another topic of concern for the perovskites based tandem cell architectures in the process of commercialization, which is also on the agenda of improvements for the technology at LONGi, according to CTO Xu Xixiang. Talking on timelines, while the roadmap to realize a commercial product based on perovskite HJT tandem technology is 7 years, Xixiang is optimistic realize the goal much sooner.

On the other hand, the crystalline silicon single-junction cells that make up a lion's share of the PV capacity installed globally today are approaching their highest theoretical efficiency of 29.4%. 

In November 2022, the company announced world-record efficiency of 26.81% for a crystalline silicon solar cell (see LONGi Breaks Long-Time Silicon Solar Cell Record). Only few days ago, end of October 2023, JinkoSolar reported 26.89% efficiency for its 182 mm high-efficiency n-type monocrystalline silicon solar cell, marking a new world record for single junction commercial size solar cells (see New Solar Cell Record from JinkoSolar).

Regarding LONGi's tandem cell efficiency achievement, the Deputy Secretary-General of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) Hua Jiang said, "Once this high-efficiency cell technology is truly mass-produced, it will lead to a significant reduction in the cost of photovoltaic power generation, which will be extremely beneficial to promote the growth of the photovoltaic market in China and globally." 

Recently, Japan's SHARP Corporation announced 33.66% efficiency for a tandem double-junction solar cell module and a silicon solar cell module (see World's 'Highest' Conversion Efficiency For Tandem Cell).