Held annually in Tokyo, PV EXPO is one of the premier international trade shows for the solar industry. In addition to highlighting the state of Japan’s solar market and the future industry trends, the event also showcases the hottest module technologies of the year. EnergyTrend attended this year’s PV EXPO that ran from 27 February to 1 March and surveyed the module offerings exhibited by the major representatives of the industry. The summary of our findings, based on the selection of 124 module products from 44 manufacturers, is presented in the table below.
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There are six important takeaways from this survey of module technologies:
[1] Mono-Si plus PERC is now the market standard: Prices of PERC products have been driven down by related capacity expansions across the supply chain. Furthermore, there are new processing solutions that can mitigate LID. Hence, the pairing of PERC and mono-Si cells has become standard for manufacturers. Even without additional efficiency-raising technologies, a 60-cell mono-Si PERC module is capable of achieving a wattage output of at least 300W.
[2] Black silicon is now a basic feature for multi-Si products, but manufacturers will decide on the addition of the PERC process: The wattage performances of the multi-Si modules that were on display during PV EXPO 2018 indicate that the cells in most of these products have black silicon and PERC. In reality, manufactures will make their own decisions on whether to insert the PERC process into the production line for black silicon cells. Also, there were only two bifacial multi-Si modules that were on display at PV EXPO 2018. One was a 60-cell, 295W product from GCL-SI. The other was a 72-cell bifacial module developed by CSI and had a wattage record of 350-365W.
[3] Different technologies are deployed simultaneously: Efficiency-raising solutions including n-type cells, bifacial cells, MBB, half-cut cells, and shingled cells all gained a good degree of visibility at PV EXPO 2018. Among these five solutions, some solutions complement each other when combined together (e.g. n-type bifacial cells), while some solutions are rarely integrated (e.g. the shingle technology rarely works with half-cut cells). MBB has emerged as the primary approach to creating additional efficiency on the module level compared with the other four solutions.
[4] Half-cut cells have achieve widespread deployment: More than 20 manufacturers, with the majority belonging to the first-tier, exhibited modules featuring half-cut cells at PV EXPO 2018. Using a 60-cell module as the basis for comparison, the wattage records of products with mono-Si half-cut cells and products with multi-Si half-cut cells are 325W and 300W, respectively. These records are much higher compared with the average performances of conventional multi-Si and mono-Si PERC modules. As related technological bottlenecks have been resolved, manufacturers are expected to begin mass production of modules with half-cut cells during this year.
[5] N-type cells and PERC are in a close rivalry for raising efficiency within the development of the bifacial cell technology: The bifacial modules (that use bifacial cells) are the next-generation module-level technology that is ready for mass production. Currently, manufacturers are promoting bifacial modules with deals such as making the generation capability of the backside free. At PV EXPO 2018, most bifacial modules that were on display have either mono-Si PERC cells or n-PERT/HJT cells. By and large, n-type cells and PERC are neck and neck in the competition to become leading enhancer to bifacial cells, with supporters lining up on each side. Additionally, some bifacial modules in the trade show also include solutions such as MBB or half-cut cells.
[6] The market takes greater interest in shingled cells, and SunPower showed off one of the most remarkable product based on this design: The concept of modules with shingled cells (i.e. overlapping rows of cells) attracted much more attention at this year’s PV EXPO. During the event, SunPower for the first time unveiled a shingled cell module that can achieve an output as high as 390W. On the whole, the shingle arrangement does not appear to have restrictions when combined with other cell-level technologies. Hence, other manufacturers may consider developing shingled cell modules and prepare them for market release in the future.