Trina Solar  a global leader in photovoltaic modules, solutions and services, announced today that researchers from Trina Solar and the Australian National University have jointly developed a new high-efficiency solar cell.

 

The laboratory scale Interdigitated Back Contact cell was developed at the Australian National University Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems under a research and development contract with Trina Solar through a collaboration contract with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore. After two years of research, funded by Trina Solar, the ANU has developed, with contribution from Australian consulting firm PV Lighthouse, an IBC silicon solar cell, which was independently tested by the Fraunhofer CalLab in Germany to be able to deliver an efficiency of 24.4%, putting it among the most efficient solar cells to date.

 

Trina Solar is now developing a commercial version of the IBC solar cell as well as an IBC PV module. The commercial cell has already reached an efficiency greater than 22% for a 125mm by 125mm IBC solar cell, and 238W for an IBC PV module (based on 72 cells), which was independently tested by the National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Products Quality of China. Though it is currently in laboratory scale, the new solar cell will soon be ready for industrialized mass production.