French research institute breaks efficiency record for silicon heterojunction solar cells

• LITEN, a major European research institute, announces a 24.25 percent record, approved by the German independent calibration and test laboratory.

LITEN, unit of CEA, has set a new record for silicon-based heterojunction solar cells – 24.25 percent. The achievement has been registered by German ISFH CalTeC. 

The devices were manufactured at a commercial scale of 2.4 thousand cells per hour, using industrial equipment. The record is especially impressive taking into account the efficiency was measured over the whole surface of a 244 sq cm cell. 

This record efficiency has been achieved due to improvement of plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition of thin a-Si layers as well as antireflection coating with transparent conducting oxide layers. Besides, the researchers managed to reduce damage during wafer processing. 

The experiment has shown that SHJ solar cells are feasible with regard to both technologies and producibility. 

Four months ago, Hanergy broke a SHJ module performance record. They achieved 24.85-percent conversion efficiency, in contrast to the earlier achievement of 24.5 percent, established by Japan’s Kaneka. The latter is still a record-holder for HJ solar cell performance, with the result of 26.7 percent for a cell of an a bit smaller area.