Speaking on day 3 of the 4-day TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2024 Conference in December 2024, the Senior R&D Manager Solar & Battery at RENA Technologies GmbH, Damian Brunner presented his company’s GW-scale wet chemical equipment solutions for both TOPCon and HJT technologies.The mainstream n-type TOPCon solution from RENA uses texturing, boron emitter etch and poly etch & clean as the 3 main wet chemical steps, offering a throughput of up to 15,000 wafers per hour. He said the wet chemical edge isolation with RENA tools is available at throughputs surpassing 1 GW TOPCOn solar cells per line/year. In Q4 2024, RENA launched its new InEtch Side 4+ product, which is a 12/14-lane inline single side glass/oxide etching tool with a length of 4.8m. The German manufacturer touts up to 16,000 wph for M10 wafer size for this tool as it promises ultra-high throughput removal of silicon oxide layers and doped glasses. Another new feature he threw light upon is the new generation texture additive monoTEX H2.7 that RENA introduced into TOPCon production for a tier I customer. This one enables smaller and pointy pyramids compared to PERC processes. Its post cleaning process after alkaline texture is based on ozone for best cost of ownership (CoO), he added. Comparing the cost of CoO for typical China made tools with RENA made tools for wet chemistry steps of a TOPCon line, Brunner calculates a 30% difference, RMB 0.59/W for RENA compared to RMB 0.89/W for Chinese tools. While his company’s tools have higher CapEx, he argued that these have lower power consumption, and reduced payback time of a maximum 1 year. He stressed that it is the low OpEx that ‘keeps you in business.' For more presentation videos and conference summaries for all 4 days of the TaiyangNews High Efficiency Solar Technologies 2024 Conference, click here for days 1 and 2, and here for days 3 and 4.
