Top Efficiency Of Each Cell Technology In H1 2025

It is evident that module efficiency is mainly driven by cell technology, and companies often rely on advanced cell architectures such as BC, TOPCon, and HJT. Sorting the efficiencies based on cell technology also provides some interesting insights, especially when looking at the top efficiencies and when they are mapped side by side. Sorting the efficiencies based on cell technology also provides some interesting insights, especially when looking at the top efficiencies mapped side by side.

Historically, BC has always been considered the efficiency leader among the commercially offered modules, which is also reflected in our list since we began compiling it. Thus, the explanation of top efficiency progress  is also applicable to BC efficiency progress (see Top 3 Solar Module Efficiencies). This leadership continued into 2025. In H1 2025, AIKO pushed the benchmark further by improving its module efficiency to 24.4% in June, breaking its previous record. At the beginning of 2024, AIKO held the top position with a 24% module, which it improved to 24.2% in May 2024. At the start of 2023, the top BC efficiency position was held by both LONGi and Maxeon, with both their modules featuring 22.8% efficiency. In March 2023, AIKO directly took the lead with its debut module achieving 23.6% efficiency, and further strengthened its position with a 24% product in June 2023, staying on top through 2023.

The top commercial module efficiency among TOPCon products continued to improve in H1 2025. JA Solar raised the bar by commercializing a TOPCon module with an efficiency of 23.2%, achieving a new high for the technology in June. This surpassed the previous top efficiency of 23%, which JA Solar had also held since November 2024. However, in March 2025, Astronergy and DMEGC Solar joined JA Solar by commercializing modules with 23% efficiency, bringing the total number of companies at this benchmark to 3. Over the full course of this report’s timeline, the best TOPCon efficiency has improved by 0.65% in absolute terms. Most of this progress occurred during 2024. The year began with JinkoSolar leading the category with a 22.65%-efficient module, which was at the top of TOPCon throughout the year 2023. In February, Tongwei Solar surpassed this with a module reaching 22.8%, followed by Astronergy in March. In July, both JA Solar and DMEGC Solar also reached 22.8%, creating a 4-way tie at the time. A major breakthrough came in November 2024, when JA Solar pushed the benchmark to 23% – a milestone that remained unchallenged until June 2025.

In the HJT category, the top efficiency continues to be represented by Huasun. In June 2025, the company significantly raised its benchmark by improving its commercial HJT module efficiency from 23.18% to 23.5% – the highest recorded value for this technology to date. At the beginning of 2024, Huasun’s top module was listed at 23.02%. This was later improved in August 2024, when the company raised the efficiency to 23.18%. Huasun was also the segment leader throughout 2023, improving its top efficiency from 22.53% at the start of the year to 23.02% in September, which briefly placed it among the top 3 across all technologies.

For PERC, the top efficiency remained unchanged at 21.7% through to the end of June 2025. However, the number of companies representing this efficiency level continued to decline. At the start of 2025, Risen’s PERC module was delisted in January, reducing the count from 5 to 4. The remaining companies offering 21.7%-efficiency PERC modules are Canadian Solar, LONGi, DAS Solar, and Suntech. Earlier, in 2024, the year began with 6 companies at this level, including Tongwei Solar until its delisting in September, which dropped the number to 5. The same efficiency value was recorded throughout 2023, although only 3 companies – Canadian Solar, LONGi, and Risen – were listed at the beginning of that year. Tongwei Solar joined in March 2023, followed by DAS Solar in April and Suntech in July, bringing the total to 6 by mid-2023.

This text is an excerpt from the TaiyangNews TOP SOLAR MODULES H1-2025 report, which can be downloaded for free here.

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