PERC

New doesn’t always mean better: Passivated emitter and rear contact solar cells have earned their place through real-world reliability and cost-effective manufacturability.

Wood Mackenzie predicts that the global floating solar market will be dominated by the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and led by India, China and Indonesia through to 2033. The consultancy says growth will be driven by rising demand, decreased capital expenditure and supportive policies.

In May 2024, high-efficiency panels, predominantly glass-glass modules equipped with tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells began to converge on price with mainstream offerings, writes Martin Schachinger, of pvXchange. Production volumes for these negatively-doped, “n-type” cells and modules have been ramped up in China while the increasingly restrictive customs situation in the United States may already be having an impact. For the European market, ever-lower prices for the latest module technology would suggest that demand would continue to rise were it not for a number of disruptive factors.

With solar module oversupply triggering a price freefall in 2023 and no recovery in sight, market consolidation, inventory pile-up, technology shifts, and challenges to reshoring PV manufacturing are set to affect all levels of the solar supply chain.

As solar module prices continue to fall, pvXchange.com founder Martin Schachinger explains how price pressure could increase in the weeks and months to come.

IEA PVPS Task 12 analyzes the environmental impact of passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) technology in PV installations in comparison to the monocrystalline silicon technology (AI-BSF) and the trend towards installing horizontal single-axis tracker systems as opposed to fixed tilt systems.

The rise of cost-effective TOPCon cell technology last year led to a ‘surge’ in production demand for solar n-type cell technology, with leading industry analysts TrendForce prophesying PERC cell capacities ‘may’ be phased out in two to three years. The company’s experts, however, warn that oversupply for p-type cells and modules may increase the price gap between n-type and p-type products in the upcoming months.

Dutch scientists have developed a perovskite-PERC tandem solar cell based on a new type of tunnel recombination junction that reportedly offers an improved device efficiency distribution. The cell uses a nickel(II) oxide layer that is intended to reduce electrical shunts in the perovskite top cell.

The new edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaic (ITRPV), published this week, finds that 295 GW of PV modules was shipped in 2022, and that prices for silicon PV modules fell by 7% over the year. The report finds that price premiums for n-type modules are now marginal, and the technology grew to represent 15% of the market, and is expected to keep growing over the coming decade.

Dutch scientists have reported higher degradation risk for n-type TOPCon cells with EVA encapsulant due to potential moisture degradation. Front-side metallization makes n-type cells more vulnerable than p-type cells, according to damp heat tests.