[Report] "High-Efficiency Solar TopCon Cell Production Smooth"… Hanwha Solutions Targeting US Market

Production of 4.5GW Solar Cells at Jincheon Plant on Land Equivalent to 26 Soccer Fields
Electricity Production Scale for 6.2 Million People for One Year
Mass Production of Topcon Cells in April Next Year... Development of 'Perovskite' Tandem Cells

Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS Division Jincheon Plant Solar Cell Manufacturing Process Scene

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] A cassette loaded with 200 deep blue wafers was moved along the conveyor belt above. Wafers confirmed to have 'no defects' by camera were engraved with a type of QR code called 'Tra.Q' using a laser. The entire process of transferring the wafers to the etching stage, which makes the wafer surface uneven, was fully automated, with not a single worker in sight.

Employees working on the 190,000㎡ site, equivalent to 26 soccer fields, number just over 2,000. The entire process, from the receipt of wafers?the material for solar cells?to the shipment of modules assembled with wafers, is automated. On the 300-meter-long cell production line, thousands of pieces of equipment and hundreds of robots are deployed throughout to manufacture automatically.

Choi Kyung-deok, Operations Team Leader of Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS Division, explained, "Since introducing the smart factory, it is difficult to find workers in the cell factory. Even if a defect occurs in the equipment, messages are sent through workers' smart bands to take appropriate action."

Visiting Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS Division’s Jincheon Plant on the 12th offered a glimpse into the current status of the domestic solar industry. As of last year, the plant is equipped with facilities capable of producing 4.5GW of solar cells and 1.6GW of modules. This scale can produce the amount of electricity used by approximately 6.2 million households for one year.

Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS Division Jincheon Plant Solar Module Manufacturing Process Scene

In particular, the Jincheon Plant is operating a 300MW pilot production facility for TOPCon cells, which have higher power generation efficiency than conventional solar cells. TOPCon cells insert a thin oxide layer into existing cells to increase power generation efficiency by about 1 percentage point (P).

Currently, PERC cells, which account for more than 90% of the global solar market, improve efficiency by inserting a reflective layer on the rear side to reflect light, with an average efficiency of about 23%. Most of the cells mass-produced by Chinese companies today are PERC cells.

On the other hand, Hanwha Solutions’ TOPCon cells reportedly have a prototype efficiency of about 24.4%. As efficiency increases, the amount of power generated per module installation area rises, allowing more power to be produced in a smaller area, thus enhancing price competitiveness.

Hanwha Solutions plans to invest 180 billion KRW to expand the Jincheon Plant’s capacity to 5.4GW, of which 130 billion KRW will be used for line conversion and equipment introduction for TOPCon cell mass production. From April next year, it is expected to produce 3.9GW of PERC cells and 1.5GW of TOPCon cells annually. Team Leader Choi added, "The manufacturing process of TOPCon cells is highly compatible with existing PERC cell processes, making it suitable for production at the Jincheon Plant, which has a large-scale cell manufacturing line."

Hanwha Q CELLS Division plans to focus on the U.S. solar market, which is expected to grow 20-30% annually, by utilizing TOPCon cells scheduled for mass production in the first half of next year. The Jincheon Plant’s solar exports are expected to exceed 2 trillion KRW next year, up from about 1.7 trillion KRW this year.

Yang Byung-ki, Development Team Leader of Q CELLS Division, said, "By adding four or five additional processes to existing facilities, production is possible, reducing production costs. Although development was about three years behind competitors, we have secured sufficient competitiveness in cell efficiency and manufacturing costs."

An employee of Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS division is conducting a quality inspection of solar modules.

The maximum efficiency of TOPCon cells is limited to 25-26%, and Hanwha Solutions is also developing tandem cells next. Tandem refers to a pair of devices, and tandem cells absorb short and long wavelength light separately in the upper and lower cells.

They can utilize a broader range of solar energy and are considered next-generation solar technology. The theoretical efficiency reaches up to 44%. Because the mineral 'perovskite' is used in the upper cell to absorb sunlight effectively, these are also called perovskite solar cells.

Hanwha Solutions Q CELLS Division, in collaboration with Germany’s Helmholtz Research Center (HZB), has succeeded in developing tandem cells with a record efficiency of 28.7%. The German research institute is currently operating a pilot production facility, and mass production is planned to start domestically in June 2026.

Team Leader Yang said, "It sometimes requires investments worth several hundred billion KRW to increase power generation efficiency by 0.1% per year. We will focus on research and development of tandem cells, which have more than twice the efficiency of existing cells, to establish ourselves as a global leading company through technological gaps in the future solar market."

Perovskite-Crystalline Silicon Tandem Cell Prototype Under Research by Hanwha Q CELLS

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.