Live Blog - Nov. 11, 20, 25: High-Efficiency Solar Technologies 2026 - Online 🖥️

Rising silver prices are adding to the cost of solar cell manufacturing, making it important to find ways to use less of the metal. At the TaiyangNews online conference, Prof. Hoex talked about reducing silver consumption in TOPCon cells through screen printing. One approach uses a thin silver layer to form electrical contacts, with lower-cost metals such as copper. UNSW is also exploring ways to reduce silver use by changing metallization design to bring silver consumption below 2 mg/W for TOPCon cells. He also says that screen printing has an advantage over copper plating, as manufacturers can continue using familiar production processes without major investments in new equipment.

UV-induced degradation (UVID) in solar modules does not necessarily stop when UV exposure ends. Prof. Bram Hoex of UNSW Sydney shared test results showing that module power loss increased from 4.5% after UV exposure to 8.9% following dark storage. The loss dropped to 4.3% after the module was exposed to light again. Hoex explained that this behavior makes UV reliability testing more complicated.

Shravan Chunduri, Head of Technology at TaiyangNews, opened Day 1 of the conference with a brief overview of the agenda, the day's presenter roster, and brief details about the other two days. He emphasized the importance of cell efficiency and noted that today's single-junction crystalline silicon cell efficiency has reached the 25% mark.