Longi Solar Announces New World Record

China’s Longi Solar has announced its bifacial PERC monocrystalline cell has achieved a world record bifaciality value of 82.15%. 

Bifacial solar cells can make use of light entering the cell from both sides. The “bifaciality” of cell, according to PVSyst, is “the ratio of the nominal efficiency at the rear side, with respect to the nominal efficiency of the front side.”

The result for the cell, called Hi-MO2, was confirmed by China’s National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Products Quality (CPVT).

” In mass production, the efficiency of the front side exceeds 21.2%. Light reception of the backside¹ can bring significantly additional energy yield,” says a statement from Longi Solar. ” If the backside power yield increases the overall module efficiency by 10%, the power of bifacial PERC module can reach 330 watts for 60-cell module (300 watts from the front side), and 396 watts for 72-cell module (360 watts from the front side).”

Longi says the panel’s double glass lamination combined with its low degradation mono (PERC) technology will mean a first-year degradation below 2%, and average annual degradation rate of less than 0.45% for 30 years.

The latest record follows another set in October for the company’s standard monocrystalline PERC cell, which achieved a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 22.71%; verified by Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE CalLab. The company said it planned to introduce the technology into its production line at the end of 2017.

Established in 2000, Longi says it is the largest supplier of mono-crystalline silicon wafers in the world. By the end of last year, Longi Solar had production capacities of 7.5GW for ingots, 7.5GW for wafers, 2.5GW for solar cells and 5GW for solar modules.

Longi Solar is a recent entrant on the Australian PV scene, which it considers to be a key market key market for the global PV industry.

“The gradual withdrawal of traditional energy sources such as coal will accelerate the replacement with clean energy such as solar power,” states the company. ” In particular, the cost reduction of PV systems and energy storage will speed up the development of large-scale power stations and civilian PV power stations in Australia.”

Dr. Hongbin Fang, Technology and Marketing Director of the company, recently gave a keynote speech at the Australia Solar + Energy Storage Congress & Expo 2017, which was held last week.

“With the release of 300W+ efficient module products represented by PERC technology, the photovoltaic industry has entered the 3.0 era,” stated Dr. Fang.

You can read Ronald’s take on the company and its modules here, or read reviews of Longi Solar panels from Australians that have had the modules installed.