The best solar panels in the world? They were born in Catania

We recently talked about the solar park of Kozani, in Greece, made up of more than 500 thousand bifacial solar modules, today the largest in Europe (you can find the articles here and here); in that case the panels were of Chinese origin, but from the year it will be possible to purchase the latest generation double-sided photovoltaic modules assembled in Italy, precisely in the “Factory of the Sun” of Catania.

Solar module manufacturing has always been based on thin-film silicon multi-junction, but now a new intuition has changed the rules and introduced a hetero-junction technology of amorphous and crystalline silicon (Hetero Junction Technology, HJT) for latest generation double-sided panels. The new form comes produced exclusively in the world in the Enel Green Power factory in Catania following a development of the production lines in two phases: the first, started in 2018, led to the construction of a new assembly line of crystalline silicon cells for the production of panels with two-sided architecture, with a maximum production capacity of 80 MW / year.The second allowed the installation of a new production line of HJT type cells, operational from the second half of 2019, with a maximum production capacity of 200 MW / year.

HJT technology guarantees high performance and low degradation of the photovoltaic moduleimproving the results of the multi-junction solution and ensuring more efficient and competitive photovoltaic solar panels: the efficiency by 20%, against 10% of older generation productsand in 2020 the 3Sun EGP PV Innovation Group demonstrated that an industrial-scale solar cell (with an area equal to 244.3 cm2) can reach and exceed 24.5% of efficiency. Turning to the power, in the case of HJT modules, the range between i 370W to 400W per panel, as opposed to 140W of previous thin-film models, their construction is also more robust and guaranteed for over 30 years.

The new double-sided panels are assembled a Catania, within the 3Sun Gigafactoryinaugurated in July 2011 and located in what is called Etna Valley, due to the presence of some companies specialized in electronics and semiconductors; since 2015 owned by Enel Green Power and today, three years after the first double-sided module produced, it is preparing to become the first European solar Gigafactory in terms of production capacity and quality. Large-scale production of HJT modules will begin in 2023.