With Improvements Driven By New Product Entries And Technological Advancements, TOPCon Technology Reaching Up To 22.8% By Mid-2024

The band gets bigger: In 2022, the efficiency band for TOPCon modules, ranging between 22.26% and 22.53%, expanded to 22.1% and 22.8%, accommodating 20 products within this 0.7% range.

Key Takeaways

· TOPCon efficiency started at 22.26% in        2022, with gradual adjustments leading to    22.1% by mid-2024.

· JinkoSolar’s 22.65% module led the segment from September 2022 until mid-2023.

· Major product efficiency improvements in 2023-24, including DMEGC reaching 22.6% and Tongwei pushing to 22.8%.

· Widespread adoption of TOPCon technology introduced more companies into the listing, driving competition and efficiency gains.

· In the TOPCon segment, the efficiency range initially began at 22.26% and ended at 22.53%, with 2 products representing the lower and higher ends. The first change occurred in May 2022, when the lower limit was changed to 22.1%, again to 22.05%in August, and then to 22.19% in September 2022. It changed twice in 2023 – to 22% in April and 22.05% in June. However, in the second half of 2023, it changed twice again – going down to 22.02% in July to remain there until November, and then moving upto 22.1% in December. However, the best efficiency for TOPCon was improved only once in September to 22.65%. While the lower limit remained the same even during the first half of 2024, the upper limit increased to 22.8% in February, which remained the same over the next 4 months .

In terms of product-level details, Jolywood retained its leadership until September 2022 with its 22.53% TOPCon module, which it continues to offer. However, in September, JinkoSolar, which had been offering a TOPCon module with an efficiency of 22.26% until then, launched a 22.65% efficiency product that remained at the top of the TOPConmodules listing till the end of 2023 .

As the adoption of TOPCon spread wider, several companies started commercializing their products based on this cell technology. Following the chronological order, Qcells entered our listing in May2022 with a 22.3% TOPCon module, which remained unchanged until September 2022. However, the product was not available on the company's website for the next 2 months, and the company introduced a slightly lower efficiency product in December, at22%. It remained at this level till May 2023, while its specs were again inaccessible for the June edition. Astronergy entered our list at the same time as Qcells, with a 22.1% TOPCon module that maintained the same efficiency until February2023. Its efficiency improved to 22.4% in March2023, to 22.5% in May, followed by the next level of improvement to 22.6% in September and finally sharing the top level of 22.65% with JinkoSolar in December 2023.

DAS Solar also started offering a TOPCon module with the same 22.1% efficiency from August 2022onwards, and the listed specifications remained unchanged until March 2023. The company’s TOPCon module featured a higher efficiency of22.3% in April 2023, then increased to 22.5% in July and listed as-is from then onwards. EGing PV's22.05% efficiency product saw no changes since it entered our listing in August 2022 until June 2023, while in July the company commercialized a 22.44%product and increased it marginally to 22.45% the following month.

In September 2022, Trina Solar commercialized its TOPCon module with 21.9% efficiency, which did not undergo any changes till March 2023. However, the company’s top TOPCon product featured 2 upgrades in the next 3 months – 22.3% in April and 22.5% in June, which continued till the end of the year. JASolar was the last entrant to our TOPCon listing during 2022 with a module of 22.4% efficiency, which was reflected in our October listing and remained so until March 2023, and featured with a slightly higher efficiency of 22.5% from April 2023 onwards.

In 2023, DMEGC was the first new company to enter the TOPCon segment in June with 22.45%. In July, 5companies were added with their TOPCon products, all featuring above 22% efficiency. Qn-SOLAR, Suntech, and GCL-Si maintained their efficiencies of 22.45%, 22.4%, and 22.3%, respectively, without changes until December. Runergy, entering with22.4%, improved to 22.5% in December, while SolarSpace, initially at 22.02%, upgraded to 22.45%in the same timeline.

URECO joined in August with 22.45% efficiency, which remained the same until the end of the year. In October, Yingli and CECEP joined with 22.36% and22.1%, respectively, and their efficiencies remained unchanged for the next 2 months .

DMEGC joined in at the 22.5% level in January2024, where a bulk of 6 TOPCon products were already listed in December 2023, increasing the count to 7. DMEGC has increased its best TOPCon module’s efficiency by 0.05% from the December level of 22.45%. In February, Tongwei raised the bar for TOPCon module efficiency to 22.8%, breaking the 22.65% level that JinkoSolar attained for the first time in September 2022. In March, Astronergy’s top TOPCon module also reached the same level, but jumping from the previous highest 22.65% level. DMEGC also improved its product’s best efficiency to 22.6% from 22.5%. In May, there were 2 changes in the TOPCon section for TOP SOLAR MODULES: EGing improved the efficiency from 22.45% to 22.5%and Kalyon’s TOPCon module entered our list with an efficiency of 22.38%.

Touching new heights: Tongwei raised the bar by achieving 22.8% efficiency and surpassing the 22.65% efficiency mark set by JinkoSolar 1.5 years ago. Astronergy followed suit by matching Tongwei’s figure the next month.