Sharp: 25.09% Si/HJT Record Cell

• Japan's Sharp has managed to record a full-size conversion efficiency of 25.09% on a 6-inch silicon solar cell
• It uses a monocrystalline solar cell with a heterojunction back-contact structure for its research
• The achievement has since been validated by the Japan Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories
• The cell comes close to the 26.6% world record commercial-size cell from Kaneka, which uses a similar structure, but is at 5-inch a little smaller

Sharp Corp. has achieved a 25.09% cell efficiency for what it calls the world's highest full-size conversion efficiency for a 6-inch silicon solar cell.

The Japanese company used a monocrystalline solar cell with a heterojunction back-contact structure. This structure is a fusion of the back contacts utilized in Sharp's high-efficiency BLACKSOLAR solar module and a heterojunction structure, forming an amorphous silicon film on the surface of the monocrystalline silicon substrate.

The world record for a crystalline silicon based solar cell is being held by another Japanese company. Kaneka reached 26.7% in early 2017 for an n-type silicon HJT rear IBC cell, though at a much smaller size of 79 cm2. A few months earlier, it had presented a larger-size 5-inch cell (179.74 cm2) using the same technology that reached 26.6%.

Sharp's technology research has since been validated by the Japan Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories (JET), an official certification body for energy conversion efficiency measurements in solar cells.

The work was supported by the research and development initiative of Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as part of a project called "Development of Cost Reduction Technology of High Performance, High Reliability Solar Power Generation," according to Sharp.