Technology
Panasonic will
launch a solar battery that has the world’s highest conversion efficiency
toward 2013. At present, a generation element from SunPower of the U.S. has the
world’s highest conversion efficiency in the level of 22%, and Panasonic is following
SunPower with 21.6%. Higher conversion efficiency means higher generation per
area. Panasonic has been trying to improve conversion efficiency of HIT
originally developed by Sanyo. HIT has a structure made up of piled-up amorphous
silicon and crystal silicon, and Panasonic will modify the structure and
quality of a cell drastically to launch the next-generation HIT. Panasonic
successfully increased conversion efficiency to 23.7% at the experimental stage
and established the way to increase it to the level of 24%.
Solar battery
manufacturers are mostly suffering from low profitability because of the
growing price competition caused by glut. Panasonic, however, reportedly
secured favorable balance because it focuses on high value-added products. It had
about 20% share in the domestic market in 2010, and it supposedly ended with
about 25% share in 2011. The company tries to increase its share to 35% in 2012
to become the largest solar battery manufacturer in Japan. Sharp is in hot
pursuit of Panasonic because it reportedly increased conversion efficiency to
21.5%. The competition for higher performance and lower price of a solar
battery in anticipation of the system to purchase renewable energy to be
introduced coming July is intensifying.
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