Silevo ramps up to high-volume manufacture

PV solar module manufacturer Silevo has achieved greater than 21% conversion efficiency with its high performance Triex solar technology at its high-volume manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, China. This level of conversion efficiency in volume production is one of the highest in the solar industry and demonstrates the company's progression from pilot production to high volume manufacture. Silevo's Triex technology is a hybrid solar module that delivers efficiency and low temperature coefficients at previously unattained cost of production. Silevo is currently shipping commercially to its first customers and has a strong customer pipeline of over 250 MW of agreements in Europe, the United States, and China. Significant customer response to Silevo's initial product entry further validates Silevo's modules' lead in lowering BOS (balance of system) costs with high energy harvest, enabling the lowest level cost of electricity in the industry. "We are pleased to commence commercial production of Silevo modules with greater than 21% conversion efficiency," said Zheng Xu, founder and CEO of Silevo. "With a huge reduction in panel prices over the past two years, it's now time to focus on a technology that can bring significant savings, as well as an increased energy yield" Silevo's Triex is the first hybrid solar technology to combine high-performance crystalline silicon N-type substrates, thin-film passivation layers, and a unique tunneling oxide layer—all in a single solar module. Powered by its breakthrough tunneling junction architecture, the three materials together enable the Triex module to deliver high efficiency and competitive module costs. Silevo produces two series of Triex modules

• The Triex R-Series module product line is tailored to distributed grid applications in which high power output and small form factor are essential for cost-effective installation and service. The module is only 1.28 m² with a power output of 235 W (peak) per panel, which represents an 18.4% total area module efficiency.
• The Triex U-Series module product line, with a peak output of 305 W and a form factor of only 1.69 m², suits the large-scale commercial segment and the ground-mount utility space by decreasing per-module installation costs.

With the validation of its first 32 MW production line, Silevo is now focused on expanding factory capacity and leveraging economies of scale and purchasing power to meet its high customer demand. The company is on track to have approximately 230 MW of capacity online in 2013. Silevo