SNEC 2025 Exclusive: Interview With AIKO President & Founder Gang Chen

At the world’s largest solar trade show, SNEC 2025, in Shanghai, China, TaiyangNews Managing Director Michael Schmela sat down for an exclusive interview with the President and Founder of back contact (BC) technology specialist AIKO, Gang Chen as part of the TaiyangNews SNEC Solar Leadership Conversations 2025.  

AIKO has commanded the top position on the TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES Efficiency Ranking for over 27 consecutive months. Its latest efficiency for the company’s All Back Contact (ABC) module stands at an industry-leading 24.4%.

Chen explained that it is due to AIKO’s laser-sharp focus on innovation and the strategic move to advance BC technology amidst an overflow of TOPCon manufacturers that has led to this success. Its strategy to develop n-type and p-type modules separately, instead of developing n-type based on p-type in 2016, worked by not only improving the cost, but also efficiency.

AIKO’s average efficiency has reached 25.3%, while the highest theoretical efficiency for BC is about 29.5%. Chen shared that his company’s future focus remains on improving the interconnection and reducing losses to further improve the efficiency, both at the cell as well as module levels.   

An industry veteran, Chen reflected on the global solar PV industry and the current challenge of the oversupply situation. He shared that in an ever-evolving industrial setup, AIKO’s strategy to stay competitive is to pay attention to adding value with differentiated products for clients and offering customized solutions to end consumers. 

For instance, offering aesthetically pleasing modules for the European market without compromising on efficiency or power output.  

Chen believes there are still some mountains to climb for BC technology, which it has been working on for 30 years now. One of the challenges has been the lack of an accompanying industrial ecosystem for BC to thrive. This, he shared, is slowly changing as more R&D efforts are going into improving the quality and efficiency further. 

As for the company’s future plans, Chen signed off saying that the biggest challenge for AIKO right now is how to continue to retain the top of TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES Efficiency Ranking in the future as well!  

The complete interview with Gang Chen is available on the TaiyangNews YouTube Channel.  

TaiyangNews is hosting its annual PV System Technology Trends virtual conference to explore the latest solar product innovations introduced at the world’s leading solar trade shows SNEC and Intersolar. Registrations to the 2-day event, June 24 and 26, 2025, are free and can be done here.