DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions and TSEC Corporation will showcase TSEC’s newest “V-Series” high-efficiency solar panels for the first time during PV EXPO 2015 in Tokyo, Japan, from Feb. 25 – 27. The solar cells in the V-Series panels are made using new DuPont™ Solamet® photovoltaic metallization pastes that have been customized and optimized to help achieve more efficient conversion of sunlight to electrical energy, significantly improving the panel’s power output. The panels also are protected by DuPont™ Tedlar® polyvinyl fluoride film-based backsheets that are proven to deliver long-term reliability for 25 years or longer, under all-weather conditions.
“What TSEC and DuPont have achieved with V-Series represents an important technology advance for the solar energy industry,” said Tim Chang, Asia Pacific regional business director, DuPont Microcircuit Materials. “With Solamet® pastes optimized for TSEC’s V-Cell manufacturing process, we’ve hit our conversion efficiency target of over 21 percent – not just in the lab, but in production. And the use of Tedlar® film-based backsheets will help extend that power production advantage reliably for 25 years or more. Our collaboration has brought together a compelling combination of materials and manufacturing that further differentiates both companies’ offerings from the rest of the field.”
TSEC signed an agreement with DuPont in late 2014 establishing a collaboration under which DuPont would create customized silver paste materials suited for lower temperature processing in order to boost the efficiency of TSEC’s proprietary Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell (PERC) solar cell architecture. Use of the new Solamet® silver pastes on the front and rear side of the solar cells allowed TSEC to gain an additional 0.15 percent conversion efficiency to push the total to over 21 percent, its highest yet for this type of solar cell. Increasing efficiency helped improve the power output of the V-Series panels to more than 300 watts and 360 watts in 60-cell and 72-cell configurations, respectively. Higher efficiency also lowers overall system costs and improves the return on investment for solar energy systems.
“TSEC strives for the best quality solar panels at the lowest cost of ownership,” said C.J. Hung chief operating officer, TSEC. “By integrating the most efficient and most durable materials in our 2 V-Series solar panels, we’ve reached key cost and quality milestones and we’ll continue to work together with DuPont on next generation advances.”
On Jan. 26, 2015, TSEC announced plans to increase its investment in research and development to further boost efficiency and to work more closely with governments, research institutions, and value chain partners on technology development to benefit key solar growth markets including the United States and Japan. Through the collaboration in R&D, DuPont and TSEC together are innovating for a more sustainable future.