Insights On High-Efficiency Solar Modules

• The number of solar modules with efficiencies in the >22% to 22.5% range surged, increasing from 8 in December 2022 to 20 by the end of 2023 

• The first half of 2024 saw notable entries from companies like DMEGC, Qcells, and Kalyon, with their modules achieving efficiencies of 22.5%, 22.3%, and 22.38%, respectively 

• TOPCon and HJT technologies have been instrumental in pushing module efficiencies within this range.

For easier analysis of module efficiency developments, we have split them into 4 bands: >22.5%, >22% to22.5%, >21.7% to 22%, and 21.5% to 21.7%The efficiency range of >22% to 22.5% seems like the gateway efficiency band, especially for TOPCon and HJT technology, more so for the latter. It is also the band that saw the highest growth in 2023, when more and more companies started commercial activities with TOPCon. While product representation in this efficiency range increased from 20% to 24%in 2022, it reached 36% by the end of 2023. When it comes to actual numbers, from 4 products in 2022,the number of products doubled to 8 in December 2022, then shot up to 20 by the end of 2023. However, this also explains the eventual fall in the number of products as well as their relative share, as witnessed in H1 2024, falling from 20 and 36% in January to 19 and 32% in June. While it is the entry level, some technically advanced companies are going beyond 25% with their TOPCon products.  

Regarding changes in this efficiency band during the first half of 2024, in January 2024, DMEGC's latest TOPCon product reached the top efficiency of this band at 22.5%. In February, Tongwei increased the efficiency of its TOPCon module, moving beyond this efficiency level. In the same month, Qcells joined our listing with an efficiency of 22.3%, which remained at this level until June. In March, Turkey's Kalyon was included in our list for the first time with a TOPCon module of 22.38% efficiency. In April, DMEGC once again improved the efficiency of its TOPCon product beyond 22.5%, leaving this group. In May, EGing PV improved its TOPCon product efficiency from 22.45% to 22.5%, maintaining its position in this group.  

While there was no change in January and February2023, there were a few in the following months. In March, Tongwei started offering its TOPCon modules in the commercial space with an efficiency of 22.4%, the same as that of JA Solar's product. Astronergy also increased the efficiency of its product from22.1% to 22.4%. Canadian Solar joined the TOPCon group as well, with a 22.3%efficiency module, the same as the HJT and IBC modules from REC and SPIC, respectively. April again saw some changes: JA Solar and Tongwei increased the efficiency of their TOPCon products from 22.4% to 22.5%; DAS Solar also increased the efficiency of its TOPCon module from 22.1% to 22.3%. Trina Solar started offering a 22.3% TOPCon module; however, its predecessor had an efficiency of 21.9%, thus absent from this efficiency band, giving the impression that the product is new. As to the changes in June 2023, Risen commercialized a TOPCon module with 22.5% and Trina once again increased the efficiency of its TOPCon product to 22.5%, increasing the count of companies offering products with this efficiency to 6 (see Key Findings And Structure Of TOP SOLAR MODULES Report).

Crowded excellence: With more and more companies pushing efficiency levels, the top 2 efficiency points in the >22% to 22.5% efficiency range—22.5% and 22.45%—were represented by 8 and 4 companies, respectively, at the beginning of 2024.

22.5% seems to be the sweet spot, as by December this efficiency level was shared by as many as 8 products. In June 2023, DMEGC entered our listing for the first time with a 22.45% efficiency module. A major change happened in July 2023 with 6 new companies entering the TOP SOLAR MODULES list, of which products from 4 companies fall in this efficiency band. These are from Qn-SOLAR with 22.45%, Runergy and Suntech with 22.4%, and SolarSpace with 22.02% modules. In the same month, DAS Solar improved its TOPCon module efficiency from 22.3% to 22.5%. EGing PV, which was at 22.05% since August 2022, commercialized a 22.44% product that was also reflected in the July 2023 edition (See Growth In High Efficiency Solar Modules). 

The following month, 2 more companies – URECO and GCL-Si – joined in with 2 products from the former and 1 from the latter. Both featuring for the first time, URECO's products have the higher efficiencies among these. Its TOPCon product is rated with 22.45%, while the HJT module falls short by just 0.01% with a labeled efficiency of 22.44%. GCL-Si's TOPCon module entered our list with22.3% efficiency and remained at that level until the end of 2023. SPIC, however, made a big leap into the highest efficiency class with an IBC product of 25.8% efficiency.  

In October, Yingli and CECEP joined the group with their TOPCon products featuring respective efficiencies of 22.36% and 22.1%. While there were no changes in the month of November, December 2023 saw a couple of improvements: Runergy – from22.4% up to 22.5%; SolarSpace – from 22.02% up to 22.45%; and Akcome – from 22.22% up to 22.37%.  

LG's IBC module topped the list at the beginning of 2022 with an efficiency of 22.3%, followed by JinkoSolar's TOPCon product with 22.26% efficiency. HJT products from Huasun and REC were also part of this efficiency group with 22.2% and 22.1% efficiency, respectively. The list remained the same until February 2022, whereas in March, LG was delisted due to its exit from the PV market. The product count, though, remained the same with SPIC improving its TOPCon module efficiency from 22%to 22.1% to foray into this band for the first time. The only change in April was Huasun increasing its HJT module efficiency by 0.1% absolute to 22.2%.  

Several changes took place in May 2022: Canadian Solar introduced a 22.5% efficiency HJT module, Qcells and Astronergy commercialized TOPCon modules with 22.3% and 22.1% efficiency, respectively, and REC upgraded its HJT module series to reach 22.3%. The only change in June was that Huasun further improved its HJT module efficiency to 22.53%, beyond the scope of this band and thus exiting the range altogether. In July, Akcome commercialized an HJT module with 22.5% efficiency, the same as another HJT product from Canadian Solar. The upgrade to SPIC's IBC product was reflected in our June research –the company improved its IBC module efficiency to22.3%, which is the same as the products from REC and Qcells. EGing's TOPCon module was added to the list in August, with an efficiency of 22.05%.  

In September, JinkoSolar increased the efficiency of its TOPCon module beyond 22.5%, earning it an exit in the form of a promotion to the big leagues, while 2 new products were added to the list. JA Solar introduced its TOPCon module with 22.4% efficiency, and DAS Solar's product, also based on TOPCon, had a slightly lower efficiency of 22.1%. In October, the products from Akcome and Qcells were not listed on their respective websites and thus were delisted, while the rest remained the same. No changes were noticed in November, but Akcome started promoting an HJT module with a lower efficiency of 22.22% in December 2022. 

The TaiyangNews TOP MODULES H1-2024 Report summarizes the key findings from over 30 editions published during 2022 and H1-2024. Download the free report here.