THE ENERGY INDUSTRY TIMES - JULY 2019

Technology 15

Higher efficiency improves

solar economics
As solar modules
move to higher power
M uch has changed in the so-
lar industry in recent years
– advances that have seen
solar farm sizes increase and lev-
elised cost of energy (LCOE) from
How the economics stack up
Cell technology Industrial standard Jinko Cheetah
outputs, 158 mm those farms reach grid parity in 156 mm cell 158 mm cell
many countries. Module Type Industrial standard Cheetah high
wafer sizes could With China being a global leader in performance poly series mono series
the sector, Chinese companies are
become the new playing a key role in the progress of
solar panel technology.
standard. Dr Alex Li, Ph.D in Photovoltaics
Module power(W) 330 400
Analysis results
Junior Isles speaks Engineering and Head of Technical
Service, Asia Pacific (APAC) at LCOE (¢/kWh) 3.55 3.49
to JinkoSolar’s JinkoSolar, commented: “About two
years ago in Australia, people were
IRR (%) 9.35 9.56
Dr Alex Li about what typically only building 5 MW solar
farms; these days, 200 MW farms
Project overall cost ($/Wp) 0.7500 0.7438
BOS cost ($/Wp) 0.5000 0.4588
the company’s move are being discussed. There’s been re-
Inverter cost ($/Wp) 0.0793 0.0771
ally rapid change and rapid growth
to a larger standard in the industry. Mounting structure cost ($/Wp) 0.1024 0.0845
“What we are trying to achieve is
wafer size means for how to ensure solar, as a relatively Other material and construction cost ($/Wp) 0.3183 0.2972
new technology, reaches grid parity
the industry. and becomes competitive with tradi- using a 400 W panel will reduce the But the economics of the two long as possible. But at some point,
tional forms of generation such as balance of system (BOS) cost signif- technologies has been changing. when they can no longer make a
coal fired plant or hydro.” icantly.” “About 30 years ago, in the early profit, they will be forced to upgrade
The price of solar power has fallen Launched about one year ago, the days of the PV industry, the price their manufacturing facility to pro-
by around 90 per cent over the last Cheetah 410 W module set a new difference between poly and mono duce premium mono solar cells.”
10 years. This, says Dr Li is largely standard for a commercially mass- was very big, almost 200 per cent,” Indeed, it will be an increasingly
down to two factors: “Number one is produced panel output. “It was the said Dr Li. “So back then, and even likely shift judging by the falling
the power output, driven by efficien- first time in history that a single PV just 10 years back, people favoured LCOE delivered by advancing tech-
cy. Higher power means you can re- panel could reach 400 W. Now other poly because of cost. But both are nology. A financial analysis by
duce the balance-of-system (BOS), major suppliers are following the reliable technologies.” JinkoSolar of a Cheetah 158 mm,
such as trackers and other compo- trend of moving towards highly effi- As the industry has evolved, how- high performance mono cell versus
nents, not including the panels. cient mono technology,” said Dr Li. ever, the price gap has become very a standard poly-crystalline cell re-
“But I would say the most impor- According to Jinko, it was able to small and according to Dr Li, the veals an LCOE of 3.49 /kWh versus
tant thing is economy of scale. Ten move to a 158 mm wafer, from the trend is towards mono crystalline 3.55 c/kWh.
years ago manufacturers were only traditional 156 mm size, without any panels. “If you calculate the capex of Meanwhile, Dr Li says JinkoSolar
producing 100 MW each year. To- major upgrade of its existing manu- the entire system – including not just will continue to upgrade its technol-
day, all the tier 1 manufacturers are facturing facilities. “This means we the module but the inverter, tracker ogy in a cost-effective way. “Next
producing 10 GW/year but the profit were able to increase the power of DC cable and all the civil works – a year or in the very near future, we
is the same. So the unit price has the modules without increasing man- 400 W mono now has a lower capex will be offering a major technology
been driven down. ufacturing cost significantly. So this than a 320 W poly. This is a mile- development for the solar PV com-
“China has been the major contrib- was a cost-effective technology de- stone and indicates that poly will munity. Already this year, we
utor to the PV industry when it velopment.” probably start to phase out for the launched a bifacial technology with
comes to mass production, able to do The decision to base its modules first time in the history of PV.” a transparent backsheet. Because it
very high density mass production in on what it calls “premium” mono- He believes that when looking at allows electricity to be generated
a single manufacturing facility. The crystalline instead of poly-crystalline the technology development road- from both sides, you can generate
silicon maker, wafer maker and cell was also ultimately based on eco- map, there will be “no way back” for more energy from the same area of
maker are all next to each other so nomics. Dr Li says, these premium polycrystalline panels. “Poly does land.”
that you an access those technolo- mono-crystalline panels have a dif- not have too much room to improve. He forecasts that next year it will
gies and technology developments in ferent cell structure to standard mo- If you spend $1 million in a poly de- have modules with power outputs in
a relatively efficient way.” no-crystalline modules and have 2-3 velopment, you would probably get the region of 450-460 W from a sin-
JinkoSolar recently announced that per cent higher efficiency. a 0.1 per cent increase in efficiency gle panel. These, he says, will have
it was switching high volume pro- Mono-crystalline solar panels have but if you spend that in a mono tech- an efficiency above 20 per cent.
duction capacity for its PV panels the highest efficiency rates, currently nology development, you would get Looking forward, Dr Li adds that
from polycrystalline to premium in the 20 per cent region, since they a 0.2 to 0.3 per cent increase in effi- new technology will have to be af-
monocrystalline. It also said its new are made out of the highest-grade ciency, said Dr Li. “This is why fordable, reliable in the field and du-
Dr Li says polycrystalline Cheetah module is now combining a silicon. They also have a long lifes- many investors now choose to invest rable. He concluded: “From a finan-
technology will probably start bigger size wafer with half-cut cell pan, typically 25-30 years. Tradition- in mono technology development cial point of view, if we want to
to phase out “for the first time technology. In what it claimed to be ally, however, they are more expen- rather than poly.” make sure that your financial invest-
in the history of PV” an industry’s first, the new Cheetah sive. By contrast, poly-crystalline For manufacturers, the change ment is secure. Together with power,
module will now use a 158 mm wa- panels are less efficient, around 13- from poly crystalline cell production reliability and durability, we also
fer as its new standard size. 16 per cent and typically have a to mono will be painful but may be have to ensure that the solar panel
Dr Li says moving to the larger slightly shorter lifespan of 23-27 inevitable. “It will be challenging performs as predicted from day-one
wafer size is important for end users years. However they are traditionally because manufacturers will want to – that is JinkoSolar’s mission for the
– both residential and utilities – as it cheaper. make use of existing facilities for as entire PV community.”
allows higher power output in a
cost effective way. Having a higher
output panel, he stressed, is a way
of achieving a better return on in- Increasing conversion efficiency
vestment for solar projects, thus
making them more attractive for fi- In early June, JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd said it achieved maximum conversion efficiencies of 24.38
nancial investors. per cent and 24.58 per cent, respectively, for its Cheetah size cells and N-type photovoltaic (PV) cells.
“When I first joined Jinko two
years ago, people were talking about The Chinese Academy of Sciences undertook the testing of the cells in March, JinkoSolar said in a
a 320 W panel. This means you statement, claiming the efficiencies are the highest in the world.
would need five panels to build a 1.6 JinkoSolar also said its 72 version monocrystalline module has reached peak capacity of 469.3 W
kW system. Today, with a 400 W during tests conducted by German safety standard authority TÜV Rheinland. The tests were carried
panel, you only need four panels,” out in May.
he said. “This means you can reduce
the cost of the mounting system sig- The company has tied up with advanced R&D centres globally to create a joint research platform for
nificantly. You can also reduce in- solar products. In January, it announced an efficiency of 24.2 per cent for a large-area N-type TOPCon
stallation cost, etc. When you are monocrystalline silicon solar cell.
talking about a 100 MW solar farm,