Jinergy: HJT Cost Is Expected to Be in line with PERC Cost
With the continuous development of the photovoltaic industry and the acceleration of the grid parity process, photovoltaic enterprises are faced with the severe challenges of transformation and upgrading, cost reduction and efficiency increase. At present, as the mainstream cell product in the photovoltaic market, PERC cells have less and less space for cost reduction and efficiency increase. Domestic photovoltaic enterprises have been aiming at new technologies, and many new technologies are advancing steadily. Among them, HJT is regarded as one of the next generation ultra-efficient cell technologies with the greatest potential for industrialization.
At the “China New Energy Forum 2020” held recently, WANG Wenjing, director of the Solar Cell Research Lab of CAS Institute of Electrical Engineering, said that compared with PERC cells, HJT cells enjoyed the advantages of high efficiency, large size, simple process, low attenuation and efficiency enhancement. HJT cells can achieve the efficiency of 24% this year and are expected to achieve the efficiency of 25% in the next one or two years.
HJT technology, combining thin film cells and crystalline silicon technology, show more space for efficiency enhancement and cost reduction after initial mass production. And it has become one of the most cost-effective solutions for the future cell technology recognized by the industry, and thus has attracted many enterprises to make layout of it successively. As one of the early “pioneers” in the field of HJT, Jinergy has realized the pilot production as early as 2017. The average efficiency of Jinergy’s super high efficiency HJT mass production has now reached 23.85% and is expected to reach 24.2% by the end of this year.
It is reported that Jinergy’s latest HJT module adopts the M6 wafer, MBB and half-cut technologies, and its frontside power output can reach 510W, and based on the bifaciality of 93%, its integrated power can reach 570W. In addition, the size and weight of the module can satisfy most of the existing fixed and tracker supports, and it is suitable for the existing container system. Meanwhile, the electrical parameters of the module are compatible with the existing mainstream central and string inverters, which can avoid the additional cost generated by the system end.
Despite significant technical advantages, HJT’s high cost has become the biggest restriction in the promotion of HJT. In order to solve this problem, Jinergy has carried out cost reduction from the aspects of conductive silver paste, ITO target materials and texturing, etc. Meanwhile, Jinergy has targeted to solve the problem of HJT industrialization through breakthrough remolding design of amorphous silicon deposition, TCO deposition, metallization and other technologies.
With the gradual realization of HJT cost reduction and the expected scale effect, the cost of this super high efficiency technology can be in line with that of monocrystalline PERC in the future. Dr Liyou Yang, general manager of Jinergy, said, “Currently, the cost of Jinergy’s HJT products is 138% that of PERC. We are confident to reduce that to 108%, and it is only a relatively conservative target.”
In the future, with the expansion of industrial scale and the promotion of localization, the cost of related equipment will be greatly reduced, and the commercialization pace of HJT will be accelerated, which will also expedite the arrival of the era of comprehensive photovoltaic grid parity.
