Suntech surpasses its own module efficiency record

Wuxi, China-based Suntech Power Holdings (NYSE:STP) beat its own world record today.

The company said it has achieved a new record in conversion efficiency for its multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic module.

The photovoltaic module manufacturer said its commercial grade module reached 16.5 percent conversion efficiency, passing up its own previous record of 15.6 percent set last month and the 15.5 percent record set by Sandia National Labs 15 years ago (see Suntech claims new multi-crystalline PV efficiency record).

Suntech had said last month it thought it could improve the 15.6 percent conversion efficiency.

Suntech said the results were independently measured by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.

The module is powered by Suntech’s Pluto PV cells, which use solar grade silicon with each PV cell and have more than 17 percent conversion efficiency, according to Suntech.

Martin Green, research director of the ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence at the University of New South Wales, Australia, said in a news release that the conversion level sets a new benchmark for high performing multi-crystalline modules.

Suntech’s CEO Zhengrong Shi was expected to present a paper today on the technology used to produce the commercial-scale Pluto cells at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference in Hamburg, Germany.

Earlier this month, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Innovalight said it demonstrated a record 18 percent conversion efficiency of sunlight with its silicon ink processed solar cells. But the company has higher ambitions of bringing crystalline silicon solar cells to more than 20 percent conversion efficiency (see Innovalight silicon ink solar cell reaches 18% conversion).

Sharp had been the No. 1 PV device supplier in 2006 and for several years, according to 2009 research from IC Insights. But Germany's Q-Cells and Suntech surpassed Sharp in 2007.

Then last year, U.S.-based First Solar, a supplier of thin-film PV panels that use cadmium telluride, surpassed Sharp and Suntech in the rankings. IC Insights says the rankings are based on the peak-megawatt value of the PV devices produced and sold by the suppliers.

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