L R AS Published on Monday 1 May 2023 - n° 443 - Categories:IBC. heterojunction, Chinese company
Risen Energy develops heterojunction. Interview
The manufacturer is achieving a panel efficiency of 24% with the hyper-ion panel. It will begin commercial production in the second quarter. By the end of the year, Riser will be producing heterojunction panels.
at a cost similar to that of PERC and TOPCon. In production, the highest efficiency of the cells is over 25.6%; the average efficiency of the panels is 22.5%.
The first lines in operation will be 5 GW for cells and 10 GW for panels. The second phase will add a further 4 GW of cell production and 6 GW of panel production, so in total, current plans for heterojunction are for 9 GW of cell capacity and 16 GW of panel capacity.
Risen is working mainly on heterojunction, but is modifying its PERC production capacity to produce panels with TOPCon technology.
Heterojunction requires a lot of silver metal. Risen works with silver-coated copper. We have reduced silver consumption to 9-10 milligrams per watt, while some of our competitors are still at around 12 and the industry average is 14. We're leading in this area. Once we start working with copper-plated silver, we can reduce it by a further 50% or so.
For the moment, the R&D team's priority is to reduce the cost of producing the heterojunction in 2023 and 2024.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/04/25/high-hopes-for-heterojunction/
PV Magazine, 25 April 2023
Editor's note: The interview is more of an advertorial in which Risen wants to draw attention to its forthcoming migration to the heterojunction. Production capacity has yet to be installed. The production cost comparable to that of P-type or TOPCon panels from the start of manufacture seems quite ambitious.
The Chinese are good at showing off
Risen indicates that the industry is still very hesitant about switching to electro-junction technology.
