The increase in the size of solar wafers has become an inevitable trend in the development of the photovoltaic industry. On the manufacturing side, large-size solar silicon wafers can increase the output of solar silicon wafers, solar cells and photovoltaic modules, thereby reducing the production cost per watt; on the product side, large-size solar silicon wafers can effectively increase the power of photovoltaic modules. The design of solar cells and solar modules improves efficiency; on the system side, as the power and efficiency of monolithic photovoltaic components increase, large-sized solar silicon wafers can reduce the cost of brackets, combiner boxes, cables, land, etc., thereby reducing the cost of single-watt systems cost.
210MM silicon wafer is the largest size in the current photovoltaic modules. Now we will describe the advantages of 210MM in detail from the three aspects mentioned above: the manufacturing end, the product end, and the system end.
Solar cells are the intermediate products from solar silicon wafers to photovoltaic modules, and the cost of solar cells determines the cost of photovoltaic modules, the main equipment of the photovoltaic system. Therefore, looking at the future potential of the size of photovoltaic modules, it is inevitable to first see the potential for cost reduction per watt. At this point, the excellence of the 210MM size is outstanding.
When using 210MM size solar wafers, the wattage of a single cell increases, corresponding to an increase in the total power per hour of printing, thereby reducing the production cost per watt. According to research, using 210MM solar silicon wafers, the production cost per watt of cells can be reduced by more than 20%, and the production cost per watt of modules can be reduced by 14%. For photovoltaic systems using 210MM photovoltaic modules, the cost reduction will reach more than USD0.016/W.
Compared with the current mainstream photovoltaic modules in the market, the cost reduction per watt of photovoltaic modules using 210MM solar silicon wafers will reach more than USD0.016, making the power station using 210MM photovoltaic modules more investment value.
Module products based on 210MM solar silicon wafers can be applied in various scenarios through a variety of layout designs, and promote the cost reduction and efficiency increase in each segmented application market. At present, there are about 5 sizes of 210MM photovoltaic modules released in the industry, and the output power of the modules ranges from 400W to 660W. They are used in different market segments, covering the household market, industrial and commercial distribution, agricultural, fishing and other composite projects as well as large-scale Ground power station and many other scenarios.
Previously, there was a lot of controversy over the logistics and transportation of the 210MM series. The inner size of the commonly used 40HC (high container) container is 12*2.35*2.69 meters, and the door height is 2.58 meters. According to the size data of different modules, it can be calculated that the transportation cost of 210MM solar silicon wafer 550W (55 pieces)/500W (50 pieces) photovoltaic modules can be lower than that of 166 (72 pieces) 450W photovoltaic modules by USD0.0016 /USD0.0005/W. When the 210MM photovoltaic module reaches 600W (60 pieces), by adjusting the placement of the photovoltaic modules in the container from horizontal to vertical, the transportation cost is only USD0.0004/W higher than the 210MM size 550W photovoltaic module, which is still low In 166MM size 450W photovoltaic modules USD0.0012/W.
In terms of transportation, take Risen Energy and Trina Solar as examples. Risen Energy once gave one of the many transportation solutions when the 600W photovoltaic module was released: taking a 40-foot container as an example, it can transport 584 Pieces of 600W photovoltaic modules, each 73 pieces is a pallet, a total of 8 pallets, and the gross weight of each pallet is 2630 kg.
On the other hand, Tianhe released a solution for transporting 210MM photovoltaic modules on its official website: short and long double-layer vertical stacking packaging method. On the basis of improving the vertical space utilization rate of the container, the short and long two-layer vertical stacking packaging method is adopted. Compared to the first-generation Apex, the standard container's packaging watts are further increased by about 9%, providing a more economical, safe and reliable logistics solution.
Since the second half of 2020, large companies related to inverters and tracking brackets have also been fully upgraded, and 210MM photovoltaic module adaptation products have been launched. The problem of inverter adaptation is an important part of opening up the application of 210MM ultra-high-power photovoltaic module products on the system side. The full launch of 210MM photovoltaic module-adapted inverters marks that the 600W+ photovoltaic open innovation ecological alliance is more mature and ecologically complete. . At the same time, the world's leading photovoltaic tracking bracket manufacturers have also successively issued certification statements that fully adapt to 210MM ultra-high-power photovoltaic modules. The industry chain is seamlessly matched and win-win cooperation.
Predictions and expectations for the future
After about a year of precipitation, the ecology of 210MM large-scale photovoltaic modules has gradually improved, and the core raw and auxiliary materials such as solar silicon wafers, solar cells, photovoltaic modules, glass, inverters, etc. have been well matched, helping the application and promotion of large-scale products. In addition, photovoltaic modules based on 210MM large-size solar silicon wafers can also realize a variety of power segment products through diversified layout design, and promote the reduction of multiple scenarios such as household, industrial and commercial distributed, agricultural, fishery, and light complex projects and ground power stations. Costs improve efficiency.
From the current form, with the advancement of technology, the existing technical bottleneck of 210MM solar silicon wafers has been broken through, and large-scale production has been expanded. At that time, the market will give a new answer. At the same time, under the situation of lower subsidies in 2021 and full entry into parity or even low-price competition, 210MM photovoltaic modules will effectively improve user income and promote the further development of the industry.