![HJT solar modules are high on cost to which high silver cost is a contributing factor. Risen Energy has now announced reduced use of silver in the company’s flagship modules. (Illustrative Photo; Photo Credit: IM Imagery/Shutterstock.com)](http://media.assettype.com/taiyangnews%2Fimport%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2024%2F01%2FPresentation1-35.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
Leading solar cell and module manufacturer from China Risen Energy has claimed to have brought down the use of silver in its heterojunction (HJT) Hyper-ion solar modules to less than 7 mg/W.
This, it says, is even lower than some 7.82 mg/W used in PERC and around 10.24 mg/W reported for TOPCon solar panels.
The Chinese manufacturer had earlier shared that its Hyper-ion modules use a silver-coated copper based paste and reduced silver consumption to less than 10 mg/W (see Hyper-Ion Solar Module Series From Risen).
High silver consumption is a major cost contributor of HJT modules that otherwise is considered to offer higher efficiency potential than both competing PERC and TOPCon technologies. Hence, reducing its use will make it cost competitive, even more than it already is.
While the company has not explicitly mentioned the route it adapted to reduce the silver consumption, low silver content paste, 0-BB, stress free interconnection and ultra-thin wafers are key technical features of its technology that are driving ng the overall costs down.
During TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies Virtual Conference in December 2023, Risen Energy's Senior Product Manager Jiajun Ye shared the company's metallization roadmap. According to Ye, the company aimed to bring down the silver use for Hyper-ion modules to $0.0064/W in 2024, from $0.0102/W in Q3/2023 (see HJT: TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies Conference Day 2).
TaiyangNews is hosting a Special Focus Webinar on January 30, 2024 on HJT Solar Application Trends in Europe, with Huasun Energy and Next2Sun. Registrations are free and can be done here.