Spic’s Solar Module Factory in China
Image: Spic
Last week, State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) site broke a 10 GW very efficient hetero junction (HJT) solar cell and module production project in Suining, province of Sichuan.
The factory will be owned by and will be managed by the unit Spic New Energy of the company, which has developed its own copper bus bar heterojunction (C-HJT) cell technology that replaces silver by copper in the metallization process. This breakthrough can considerably reduce the costs of the most important production process compared to conventional on silver -based processes, the company claims.
Chief scientist Wang Wei explained to the Chinese State Media that the technology is integrating three innovations: Ultra-Narrow 9-Micron bus bars that measure a third of the width of silver lines, vacuum-dependent copper interconnects and own interface engineering.
Lab tests showed that the proposed configuration of solar cells can achieve a power conversion -efficiency of 25.97%, with modules 710 W output.
“By resolving the bowel challenges of copper through surface treatment, we have greatly increased the deductible strength, which is crucial for sustainable installations on the roof and on utility scale,” Wang said. The process reportedly maintains conductivity, even with micro -cracks, with regard to an important reliability of the industry.
The vertical integration strategy of Spic combines internal R&D with equipment partnerships. The 300 MW pilot line in Wenzhou has already deployed the first completely domestic Copper Busbar production tools from China, with an extension of 600 MW in development. Although the supply chains of the Pandemic era delayed the 5 GW Zhejiang factory, 600 MW became operational last June prior to full commissioning this year.
The expansion of Sichuan positions Spic to use its 30 GW annual implementations of renewable energy as a buyer in captivity.
With Silver Accounting for approximately 10% of the costs of solar panels, the copper shift from SPIC comes when manufacturers climb to alternatives in the middle of volatile precious metal markets.
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