Suniva ARTisun solar cells surpass 18 percent efficiency in production

NORCROSS, USA: Suniva Inc., the only US manufacturer of high-power monocrystalline silicon solar cells, announced that its ARTisun series solar cells are achieving conversion efficiencies of more than 18 percent in production, a record for screen- printed cells in regular full-scale production.

“Customers are expecting high-quality, high-efficiency products at lower costs,” said John Baumstark, CEO of Suniva. “Suniva continues to lead these market requirements, delivering cells, and modules from our partners, that strike a sensible balance of power and affordability.”

Suniva’s ARTisun series solar cells are manufactured with optimized metallization techniques and proprietary process innovations, both of which maintain low cost while extracting the highest efficiencies possible. Suniva produces solar cells which are integrated into high-performance solar modules available through Suniva and its global customer partners.

Suniva also announced the start of production on its second manufacturing line at the Norcross plant. The new 64MWp line will triple the production capacity of the facility to approximately 100MWp.

“Our strategy supports both rapid expansion and continual technology advances,” said Baumstark. “Less than a year ago, we opened the doors to our first facility. Today, we have entered our next stage of growth and development with a significant manufacturing expansion.”

Through processes initiated by Suniva founder and CTO, Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, and further developed in Suniva’s R&D lab, the company has achieved certified efficiencies of more than 20 percent on screen-printed cells in the lab (certified by NREL). Suniva plans to steadily raise its commercial cell efficiencies above 20 percent through a series of incremental design and processing innovations.

“Suniva has a strong technology and market advantage because our patent portfolio is based on laboratory innovations that we can translate into cost-efficient manufacturing processes,” said Rohatgi.