Homer Chen, the Associate Dean of Research Institute, Shenzhen S.C New Energy, bats for TOPCon as he sees this cell technology being a major trend for the next 10 years, even as the company also caters to HJT and perovskite customers globally. He believes TOPCon provides the lowest cost of ownership (CoO) at 2 cents/W, compared to HJT (2.8 cents/W) and XBC (2.6 cents/W). It also delivers the fastest return on investment, within 2-3 years, compared to around 5 years for HJT.
With this, we wrap up Day 2 of the TaiyangNews High-Efficiency Solar Technologies 2025 Conference. The conversation around TOPCon, however, will continue on Day 3, December 9, 2025, as we are joined by industry leaders and experts to understand more about the industry’s current hot favorite solar cell technology.
TOPCon still has room for meaningful efficiency gains before reaching its theoretical limit, giving the technology several strong years ahead as the industry’s mainstream choice. This shared view came from Fraunhofer ISE’s Jochen Rentsch, S.C New Energy’s Homer Chen, and DKEM’s Fangqing Guo during the panel discussion with TaiyangNews’ Shravan Chunduri. They stress that TOPCon is robust enough for manufacturers to shift directly from TOPCon to tandem cells, without first adopting back-contact architectures.
DKEM’s Director of New Technology Development, Fangqing Guo, outlined the company’s latest high-efficiency, cost-effective metallization pastes designed for next-generation TOPCon 3.0 cells. Using a laser-enhanced firing approach, DKEM continues to improve front and rear finger contact resistivity (ρc) and recombination performance (J0,m), ensuring compatibility with advanced cell architectures and enabling mass production. The company also provides a range of silver-lean and silver-free metallization options tailored to different efficiency and cost needs, supporting the PV sector’s long-term sustainability.
Roy Ren, Solar Cell Technology Director at DMEGC, outlined the company’s various technology solutions for optimizing TOPCon cells. While he discussed a long list of optimization opportunities, the Defect Elimination Technology (DET) is somewhat special. Although it follows the trails of edge passivation, Roy emphasizes that the repair of the defects at the cut edges is much more intensive.
Trinasolar Product Manager Ling Zhuang outlines how TOPCon 2.0 boosts energy yield through i-TOPCon Ultra technology, higher bifaciality, and better low-irradiance response. The design delivers 1.7% more backside power and 7% higher output than xBC in low light. Citing case studies, she shares that in ground-mounted installations, both BC and TOPCon modules show similar shading losses in real field conditions.
NexWafe’s Co-Founder and SVP of Business Development, Frank Siebke, highlighted the company’s epitaxial wafers made with a direct gas-to-wafer process that eliminates 6 conventional production steps. He said the wafers have 20-40× lower oxygen content than Cz wafers. NexWafe aims for mass production in early 2027 and is positioning its 50 MW Bitterfeld facility to supply thin p-type wafers for high-margin space applications.
TOPCon is now the dominant solar cell technology, delivering 25-26% mass-production efficiency and a 27.79% record. Passivated contacts, the basis of TOPCon, originated in the 1980s and were first industrialized in SunPower’s Gen III IBC cells. Fraunhofer ISE christened it as TOPCon in 2013, with Jolywood and First Solar beginning industrial production soon after. The 2019 LECO breakthrough enabled modern TOPCon, followed by mass scaling from 2020-22. As silicon nears its practical limit, future gains will come from >30% perovskite-silicon tandems, with hybrid routes most promising, said Keynote speaker Fraunhofer ISE Head of Technology Transfer Jochen Rentsch.
TaiyangNews Head of Technology Shravan Chunduri kickstarts Day 2 of the High-Efficiency Solar Technologies 2025 Conference, providing a recap of Back Contact technology presentations from Day 1. With that, we head to Day 2 presentations.
Esteemed speakers from Fraunhofer ISE, Shenzhen S.C New Energy, and DKEM are on board to discuss what’s next for TOPCon solar technology as panelists today. Not to be missed!
Day 2 is devoted to the current industry workhorse TOPCon. Starting with Fraunhofer ISE tracing the origins of this technology that replaced PERC in record time, we have a range of presenters from leading solar PV companies in manufacturing and equipment supplies to show what’s latest in the space.
And we are back! TaiyangNews is happy to host Day 2 of our annual flagship event, High-Efficiency Solar Technologies Conference 2025. The virtual conference starts at 9:30 a.m. CET. In case you haven’t registered yet, click this link for free last-minute registrations.
Leadmicro CTO Jerry Liao outlined recent advancements from TOPCon to TBC solutions, highlighting 3 main process routes – LPCVD, hybrid LPCVD + PECVD, and the new PECVD route – alongside evolving TBC equipment options. Leadmicro’s TBC equipment solutions include ALD, which helps improve capacity by about 50%, and the LPCVD route that now delivers about 40% capacity gains. The new PECVD process shows roughly 20% higher capacity and improved uniformity. Additional upgrades come from edge passivation and laser steps. TBC equipment investment intensity has fallen from about RMB 350 M/GW to ~230 M/GW.
We’d be back with Day 2 of the TaiyangNews High-Efficiency Solar Technologies Virtual Conference on December 4, 2025, to discuss TOPCon solar cell technology. Expect an interesting lineup of speakers from Fraunhofer ISE, NexWafe, Trina solar, DMEGC Solar, Shenzhen S.C New Energy, DKEM, along with a panel discussion. Stay tuned!
In a fireside chat with TaiyangNews Head of Technology Shravan Chunduri, Leadmicro CTO Jerry Liao said that among the main challenges for back contact to become a mainstream technology are higher costs and penetrating the utility-scale segment. He nevertheless expects its market share to increase, but at a slower pace than witnessed for PERC to TOPCon.
AIKO says its ABC modules now achieve over 80% bifaciality thanks to reduced finger width, thinner n-poly layers, ultra-small structures, and ZBB design. Guillermo Estébanez claims the modules deliver higher energy yield at the same installed capacity, cut BOS costs by 1.1 cent/W, and lower LCOE by 5.77%.
AIKO’s Senior Product Solution Manager, Guillermo Estébanez, presented the company’s All Back Contact (ABC) modules for residential, utility-scale, and C&I segments, with a power output ranging from 480-490 W to 770-805 W, claiming around 30 W more yield than conventional panels.
LONGi’s Product Marketing Manager Dante Zeng traced the growth of BC technology, saying it has leapfrogged through structural revolution and extreme efficiency. LONGi, he shared, equips its BC modules with a 4-layer protection system to improve crack resistance, including the TaiRay wafer, high wafer thickness, one-line welding, and high-quality grammage adhesive film.
Chinese manufacturers are not adding many new factories as of now, but instead boosting output with higher-efficiency technologies. In his keynote, ISC Konstanz’s Radovan Kopecek said this is where BC technology will play a key role. If China commits to BC, the market transition could accelerate rapidly, he added.
ISC Konstanz Co-Founder & Director Radovan Kopecek says solar is expected to dominate future power systems, with PV-plus-storage eliminating the nuclear lobby’s arguments about intermittency. Average BC efficiencies are likely to reach about 25.5% within 5 to 6 years. TOPCon may be leading now, but the future will belong to BC and tandem.
Shravan Chunduri outlined new insights from the TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES Listing, which includes only commercially available modules with efficiencies of at least 21.5%. BC technology continues to dominate the efficiency charts. AIKO holds the top position, increasing module efficiency from 22.8% in 2023 to 24.4% by September 2025 – a 1.6% jump. While BC remains the clear leader, the number of BC manufacturers is still limited to 4, though this is expected to expand as adoption grows, he added.
TaiyangNews Head of Technology Shravan Chunduri opens the 4-day High-Efficiency Solar Technologies Conference 2025, noting that today’s solar landscape is defined by 3 leading commercial technologies. With rising interest in back-contact (BC), Day 1 is dedicated to BC research, manufacturers, and equipment suppliers
Today’s sessions will end with Leadmicro CTO Jerry Liao engaging in a fireside chat with TaiyangNews Head of Technology Shravan Chunduri, as they deliberate on what’s needed to turn Back Contact into the next mainstream technology. Don’t miss it!
A short agenda for Day 1, but expect insightful presentations from leading industry names and experts advancing Back Contact technology. We’ll be joined by ISC Konstanz, LONGi, AIKO, and Leadmicro to discuss the various advantages that Back Contact brings to the table.
Welcome to TaiyangNews High-Efficiency Solar Technologies 2025 Conference, our annual flagship event that’s spread across 4 days and various technologies. Over the course of this conference, Team TaiyangNews will share real-time updates from the event in this LIVE BLOG, starting TODAY, 9:30 a.m. CET.
