An important feature of TaiyangNews’ TOP SOLAR MODULES is that we have been ranking the companies according to their efficiency levels and companies have always been striving to get to the top positions. It is interesting to see how the top 3 efficiencies have progressed in the last 2 years, as well as the companies that led these innovations. Efficiency is one thing, but cell technology also plays a role here. Thus, we have also analyzed the toppers of 4 cell technologies – IBC, TOPCon, HJT and PERC. This chapter provides an analysis of the top 3 efficiencies over time and the top efficiencies in each cell technology, and the respective companies that attained this level.Count of Companies & ProductsBefore going into the core analysis, here is a quick peek into the statistics of the TOP SOLAR MODULES over the last 2 years. First, the number of products and companies. While the number of listed products steadily increased from the start of our TOP SOLAR MODULES feature in January 2022 until H1 2024, the number started decreasing in H2-2024.Starting at 34 products in January 2023, the number of listed products constantly increased to 55 by December 2023. This upward trend continued into H1 2024, with the product count peaking at 57. However, in H2 2024, numbers started dropping, to 56 in July and ultimately to 53 by December 2024. This is mainly due to a few companies ceasing their commercial activities in the PERC technology stream. A total of 5 products were delisted in the last 6 months.This trend is also evident when analyzing the number of companies over this time period. The number of companies in the TOP SOLAR MODULES listing increased steadily from 23 in January 2023 to 32 by the end of 2023, but only marginally to 33 during the course of 2024. This increase in the number of companies was not proportional to the rise in product count. This emphasizes that more manufacturers are focusing on multiple technologies to achieve module efficiencies above 21.5%. For instance, the number of companies offering 2 product platforms based on different technologies grew from 11 in January 2023 to 20 by December 2023. This number remained unchanged through H1 2024 but decreased to 19 by December 2024. Additionally, the number of companies offering products across 3 different cell technology categories dropped from 3 to 2 in August 2024. These falling numbers can again be attributed to companies withdrawing PERC-based products.
