JinkoSolar (Jinko) announced in early December that it has achieved another significant breakthrough in the development of large-sized N-type cells. With China’s National Institute of Metrology as the authoritative third-party certifier, Jinko has been proven to have attained a new high in the conversion efficiency rate for N-type TOPCon cells that are 182mm or larger in size. In laboratory testing, Jinko’s 182mm TOPCon cells have now reached the maximum rate of 26.4%.
This achievement comes just after Jinko attained a new high of 26.1% for the same product in October of this year. Commenting on the recent developments, Jinko said it has formed a globally competitive R&D team that not only develops innovative and game-changing PV technologies but also implement them in a practical manner. The company further pointed out that its R&D team pioneered the development of designs and materials such as defect passivation coating, polycrystalline silicon film, and metal thermal interface composite material. These advanced solutions have been successfully applied to large-sized PV cells and thus led to the current efficiency rate of 26.4%.
As of now, Jinko has broken the world’s record for cell efficiency and module output 22 times. In the particular, the company has been leading the development of N-type solutions. Over the past two years, Jinko has broken the world’s record seven times for N-type TOPCon cells. As a pioneer in the era of N-type products, the company has leveraged its other advantage as the one of the industry’s leaders in vertical integration to build up production capacity for N-type TOPCon cells. Compared with other manufacturers in the PV industry, Jinko currently possesses the largest production capacity for N-type crystal growth (20GW per year) and the largest production capacity for N-type TOPCon cells (35GW per year). With this scale, Jinko is expected to meet its own product shipment targets and deliver a steady stream of high-efficiency N-type modules to the market. This, in turn, will also hasten the commercialization of N-type products.
Among Jinko’s in-house developed products, the Tiger Neo series of N-type TOPCon modules now has a maximum power output that exceeds 600W. Moreover, TOPCon cells mass produced by the company have an across-the-board efficiency rate of more than 25%. Relying on its own core technologies and high-quality manufacturing process, Jinko has gained clear advantages with respect to product performance, conversion efficiency, energy density, product reliability, production yield rate, and technology-related costs. The company touts that it will maintain its leadership in the industry in the foreseeable future because it is on a clear path towards further cost reductions.
With years of know-hows and experience under its belt, Jinko has realized higher production efficiency and lower production cost for the advanced N-type TOPCon cells when compared with other competing N-type cells and the more conventional PERC cells. Furthermore, the Tiger Neo series, which has been accepted by clients in China and other regional markets, is now in the process of widening adoption. Jinko boasts that the incoming orders for the Tiger Neo series has been flowing continuously at a brisk pace. Given that N-type products are in strong demand at this moment, the company expects them to account for a major portion of module shipments next year, even perhaps reaching above 50%. Going forward, Jinko believes that its N-type TOPCon modules will make a significant contribution to China’s efforts to meet its “double carbon targets” as well as global efforts in energy transition.