A project involving Trina Solar has been selected as part of the National Key R&D Programme announced by the High-Technology R&D Centre of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology. The project, titled “Key technology research and production-line demonstration for the industrialisation of high-efficiency homojunction n-type monocrystalline silicon bifacial solar cells”, is aimed at the research, development and industrialisation of high-efficiency n-type solar cells.
N-type crystalline silicon cells have a higher conversion rate than p-type crystalline silicon cells, and when rendered bifacial can receive sunlight on both the front and rear faces. This is now the direction of travel for the next generation of high-efficiency PV cells, and Trina Solar has been planning and implementing research into bifacial n-type monocrystalline cell products for several years.
Last year the Trina Solar State Key Laboratory of PV Science and Technology set a new Chinese laboratory record of 23.1% efficiency for bifacial n-type cells. This rate was recorded in the List of China’s Most Efficient Solar Cells. Recently this record was broken again with the achievement of a solar power conversion rate of 23.8%, which was certified by the third-party German authority Fraunhofer ISE. On the back of its outstanding success with bifacial n-type crystalline silicon cells, in June 2018 Trina Solar successfully tendered for China’s first batch of demonstration projects, totalling 500 MW, at the “Technological Frontrunner Bases” in Changzhi, Shanxi province, and Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, securing unanimous approval for its product performance.
Through the implementation of this project under the National Key R&D Programme, Trina Solar, together with upstream and downstream key industry enterprises and research institutes, will promote the research, development and industrialisation of bifacial n-type crystalline silicon cell products, reinforcing its technological leadership, and at the same time greatly raise China’s capacity for indigenous innovation of renewable energy resources. This will also support grid parity for PV generation and contribute to the structural readjustment of energy resources and to efforts to tackle climate change.