Tongwei Solar updated the efficiency of another product, its TOPCon panel, in February 2024. The module, making its entry into the list in April 2023, improved its efficiency from 22.5% to 22.8%, along with an improvement in power from 580 W to 590 W. These improvements enabled its move from 10th place to 6th. However, the entry of Grand Sunergy in October moved it back to 7th place and November updates pushed it further down to 10th. The product is designed with a TNC cell type and an anodized aluminum alloy frame and features a linear power output warranty of 30 years. This product is built with 144 half-cells of the G12 wafer format.
Having maintained its 6th rank since December 2023, SPIC stepped down to 7th in October and to 9th, alongside its fellow rankers, in November 2024. Considering the changes from LONGi, Astronergy and DMEGC, the rankings of Tongwei and SPIC also slipped down to 10th.
While SPIC had been promoting a product with an efficiency of 22.3% till August 2023, it made a remarkable change in September 2023 by improving the efficiency of its top product by 0.5% absolute. Its Andromeda 3.0 product series features a top efficiency of 22.8%. The Chinese company has also provided shipment and production data, indicating the product’s commercial availability. The module features an elegant full black design combined with SPIC’s TBC cell technology, which is an IBC concept adopted on a TOPCon base cell architecture. The module, with a bifaciality of 70% and built with 120 half-cells, has a power rating of 410 W. SPIC is offering a 30-year power warranty for this product.
JinkoSolar, which moved from 9th to 11th in the July edition and down another place in October, remains ranked 12th. The Tiger Neo TOPCon module is offered with a power rating of 585 W. This panel, which was last updated in September 2022, has a 144-half-cell configuration and an efficiency of 22.65%. This 2 mm dual-glass module has a bifaciality of 80±5%.
SolarSpace, a leading cell manufacturer that has ventured into module production, is represented in our listing with both PERC and TOPCon modules. The Lumina II TOPCon module, which entered the rankings in July 2023, was upgraded in December 2023 to a high-efficiency variant, increasing its efficiency from 22.02% to 22.45%. In November 2024, the company further enhanced the top efficiency of its commercial TOPCon offering to 22.65%, resulting in a significant jump in its ranking from 20th to 12th. This 580 W module is constructed with 144 half-cells using the 182 mm wafer format. Additionally, SolarSpace's Lumina I, a PERC module with an efficiency of 21.57%, is one of 7 products tied for the 40th rank on the list. In December 2024, the SS9-66HS mono PERC module was replaced with the SS9-66HD bifacial PERC module.
In July 2024, REC Group, the Singapore-based manufacturer, made a significant update to its product lineup by commercializing the new bifacial Alpha Pure-RX module. This module replaced its predecessor, the Alpha Pure-R series, in our listing. This HJT module boasts an efficiency of up to 22.6% and a power output of 470 W. Designed with foil-wire combination interconnection technology, the Alpha Pure-RX has significant improvements over the previous model, which had an efficiency of up to 22.3% and a module power of 430 W. As a result of this advancement, REC’s ranking jumped from 27th to 12th and then a couple of places down to 14th in November. The Alpha Pure-RX module is built with 88 half-cut bifacial HJT cells, compared to 80 cells in the Alpha Pure-R, contributing to its higher power. The physical dimensions of the Pure-RX module are slightly larger, measuring 1,728 × 1,205 × 30 mm and weighing 22.7 kg, compared to the Pure-R’s 1,730 × 1,118 × 30 mm and 21.5 kg. It also features a bifaciality of 80 ±10%. Constructed with a highly resistant black polymer backsheet and an anodized aluminum frame, the module is made in Singapore and is offered with a comprehensive 25-year product and power warranty.
The best module from Jolywood, the early adopter of TOPCon technology whose products have not undergone any changes technically, ranks 15th. The last change for this product was in August 2023 when its former Niwa Light module was replaced with a bifacial product called Niwa Pro, which has the same specifications of 440 W power and 22.53% efficiency.
The next group of products are all listed with 22.5% efficiency. The number of companies sharing this spot decreased from 7 to 6 in July and remains unchanged. However, their collective ranking fell from 15th to 16th in November.
Risen gets the first mention among the 16th rankers, a group that is structured according to power first and, if equal, according to alphabetical order. Risen Energy’s Hyper-ion module, which was included in June 2023, remains unchanged. This HJT module from Risen has an efficiency of 22.5%, corresponding to a high rated power of 700 W. The product is built with 132 half-cells, cut from the 210 mm original format, and is bifacial.
Trinasolar’s Vertex N series replaced the previous Vertex S+ in the September 2023 edition. While both product groups have the same efficiency, the currently-featuring Vertex N has a high power of 700 W compared to 450 W for the former. Thus, the company’s order among the products with 22.5% efficiency went from the penultimate position up to 2nd from the top in May 2024. The TSM-NEG21C.20 is built with 210 mm wafers and 132 half-cut cells. This bifacial module, using a 2 mm glass on both sides, reaches a bifaciality of 80±5%.
DAS Solar's DAS-DH156NA solar module remains unchanged in design. This n-type TOPCon module features 156 half-cells and delivers a power output of 630 W. Built on the 182 mm wafer format, this bifacial half-cell module has 2 mm glass on both sides, offering up to 80% bifaciality.
Canadian Solar’s TopHiKu6 TOPCon model is another module that offers 22.5% efficiency. Entering our list in June 2023, CS6W-580T has an efficiency that is 0.2 percentage points higher than the bifacial product it replaced. This module contains 144 half-cells based on the 182 mm wafer format and has a rated power of 580 W.
EGing PV improved its TOPCon module efficiency slightly in May 2024. Also from the Star Pro series, the company’s best TOPCon product has an efficiency of 22.5%, increased from 22.45%. This bifacial module, comprising 144 half-cells of the 182 mm wafer format, maintains its power rating at 580 W.
Runergy’s TOPCon module, listed with 22.4% efficiency until November 2023, improved it to 22.5% in December. With this change, the company moved from 21st place to 10th. This dropped to 12th in April 2024, to 14th in July, and has held the 16th rank since November. The company is another leading Chinese cell vendor that ventured into the module business not too long ago (for background, watch our interview with Runergy CTO Yang Yang). Its 2 product streams, based on TOPCon and PERC cell technologies, were featured in our review for the first time in July 2023. Runergy’s HY-DH144N8 is built with 144 half-cells of the 182 mm wafer format. The bifacial TOPCon module has an efficiency of 22.5%. However, Runergy might soon disappear from that list depending on Tongwei’s plans for the brand. Tongwei’s takeover plans for Runergy became public in August 2024 (see Tongwei Makes Offer To Acquire Majority Stake In Fellow Chinese Company).
As a result of module efficiency upgrades, the 22.45% efficiency band has been occupied by 2 companies since November, down from 3 in October and 4 in April. This reduction is due to the upgraded efficiency of SolarSpace’s TOPCon module in November. In the July 2024 edition, the collective ranking of these companies dropped from 19th to 20th, and then to 22nd in November 2024.
Shanghai-headquartered solar cell and module manufacturer Qn-Solar entered our listing in July 2023. Originally a project developer and EPC, the 2014-launched company also operates its own power plants and has been strongly expanding into the manufacturing field recently to reach 69 GW cell and 39 GW module capacity in 2023, according to the company’s website. It is promoting TOPCon modules with an efficiency of up to 22.45%, qualifying it for the shared 22nd position. Qn-Solar’s listed bifacial TOPCon product has a rated power of 580 W and is built on the 182-wafer format with 144 half-cells. Qn-Solar is also promoting a PERC module that qualifies with an efficiency of 21.57%, which earns it a place in our current listing at the 40th position. The PERC module has an output power of 670 W.
URECO is a manufacturer formed from the merger of 3 leading Taiwanese cell manufacturers – Neo Solar Power, Gintech and Solartech. The company offers products based on all 3 mainstream cell technologies – PERC, TOPCon and HJT. While PERC products were already part of our earlier listing, the modules based on the remaining 2 advanced cell technologies were included in our August 2023 edition. Named GLORY, the company’s TOPCon series is represented by its FBF580B8D model with an efficiency of 22.45%, which means it is the 2nd company to share the 22nd rank. URECO’s HJT module, with a rated efficiency of 22.44%, very narrowly misses the spot by 0.01%, thus putting it 2 ranks down at 24th. Called GLORY HELLO, the module is built with 120 half-cells of the 210 mm wafer format and has a power rating of 635 W.
Suntech’s module, which saw a change in April 2024, has remained unchanged since. The Ultra V Pro Plus module with 625 W was replaced with the lower-power 605 W Ultra V Pro. The latter is built with 132 half-cells, while the former had 156 half-cells. While its power output has changed, the module’s efficiency remains the same at 22.4%, as do its other characteristics, such as TOPCon cells and bifacial module technology. This module has moved to 25th place in October from 24th and holds this rank alone. Another product from Suntech featuring since July 2023 has an efficiency of 21.7%, is placed 35th, and is among the top efficiency products in the PERC category.
Kalyon PV, a vertically integrated PV manufacturer from ingot to module production headquartered in Turkey, debuted in March 2024 with its TOPCon module at rank 24, dropped to 25th in July, and then to 26th in October. The company, which has 4 factories and an R&D center, commenced production in 2019. Its TOPCon module, with 22.38% efficiency and 580 W power output, features M10 half-cut cell technology and a bifacial module design. Another module from Kalyon, listed in the PERC category until July, has since been delisted.
Yingli Solar, one of the early adopters of n-type wafer-based cell architectures, entered the list in November 2023 with its PANDA 3.0 PRO, a TOPCon module product that remains unaltered. The cells used in this module are made from its in-house 5 GW cell production capacity for TOPCon, while the company has 20 GW of module capacity, including PERC and TOPCon. The listed module is built with 156 half-cells. The bifacial module interconnected with MBB technology has an efficiency of 22.36% and a power output of 625 W. With Akcome’s delisting in January, Yingli moved up one rank to 27th from 28th, while another product from Yingli also earned a spot in our list in the PERC category in February 2022, which is now ranked 40th.
Part of the vertically integrated GCL Group, which is a global leader in silicon production for the solar industry, GCL System Integration (GCL SI) offers solar modules, battery storage products as well as full PV project solutions (for details on GCL Group, watch our interview with Group Chairman Gongshan Zhu). In the July 2023 edition, we included 2 GCL SI module products from its GCL GEMINI series – one TOPCon and one PERC. However, the April 2024 list replaced the TOPCon GCL GEMINI series with GCL LOTUS without altering the key specs of the product, while the PERC range remained under the GCL GEMINI series. The most efficient product of this series, the GCL_NT10/72GDF, represents the company’s TOPCon range and has an efficiency of 22.3% and a power output of 575 W. The bifacial module is designed with 144 half-cut cells based on the 182 mm wafer format. In October, this module moved from 28th to 29th to share the rank with Qcells. GCL regained the 28th again in January. The number of companies sharing this position dropped from 3 to 2 in July, with REC’s move up.
Qcells re-entered our list in February 2024 with its TOPCon Q.TRON SMART product, which was replaced with a higher power Q.TRON variant already in March 2024. While its efficiency remains the same, the Q.TRON module delivers 35 W of additional power over the previous one. Interestingly, despite the power increase, the cell count has reduced from 120 to 108. This is only possible when adopting larger wafer formats. The current 108-cell configuration is most likely based on the M10 wafer format, half-cell and MBB module technology. According to the website, the module is available in the UK region. This module shares the 28th rank with GCL SI.
CECEP Solar Technology Zhenjiang is a Chinese cell and module producer founded in 2010 that operates around 4 GW of cell and 8 GW of module capacity, according to its website. CECEP’s TOPCon product is a High Efficiency series bifacial solar module made with 144 half-cells based on M10 n-type wafers. The product is rated with an efficiency of 22.1% and a power output of 570 W. While this module has had no changes to its specifications, the above changes moved it up a rank from 31st to 30th.
The remaining 20 products in the list feature efficiencies below 22%, of which 2 are HJT-based while the bulk are PERC modules. The number of PERC modules has been declining recently. In July, Kalyon PV’s PERC module, and thus the company itself, was delisted, followed by Tongwei Solar in September. October saw the delisting of a module each from Astronergy and Talesun, and JinkoSolar’s module was delisted in December. In total, 5 PERC modules have been delisted over H2-2024. In January 2025, 2 PERC modules were delisted, one each from Akcome and Risen Energy, reducing the total number of PERC modules in the list to 18.
Jinergy’s HJT module, which was updated in September 2023, is ranked 31st. Its efficiency of 21.85% is 0.17 percentage points higher than the previously listed product. Not just efficiency, the featured JNHM144-475 is a slightly larger module compared to the previous one, built with 144 cells, and thus has a higher power rating of 475 W. It is bifacial too, with a bifaciality of over 85%.
Meyer Burger is offering its HJT product with the same efficiency of 21.8% and a power rating of 390 W, listed at the 32nd position.
There are several module series available today with efficiencies slightly exceeding 21.5%, as high-efficiency cell architectures are not a must to reach that level, but in order to design products beyond 21.7%, cell technology is key.
As shown in our recent TOP SOLAR MODULES analysis report, PERC in general was unable to support efficiencies above 21.6% until the end of 2023. At the time, modules with efficiencies above 21.6% usually employed cells based on high-efficiency cell architectures such as IBC, TOPCon or HJT.
Of late, however, we have observed an increase in the number of companies reaching module efficiencies of up to 21.7% with PERC. Until November 2022, LONGi and Risen were part of this group. Canadian Solar joined the list of 21.7% efficiency PERC modules in January, Tongwei in February, DAS Solar in April, and Suntech in July 2023 – all of them ranked #33. However, Tongwei’s PERC module with shingled technology was delisted in September, reducing the number of companies sharing the rank at the time from 6 to 5. In the January 2025 edition, Risen Energy discontinued its PERC module, prompting its delisting, and further reducing the number of companies ranked 33rd to 4.
Following the order of rated power, the second module of Canadian Solar in this list, the HiKu7, is based on a 132-half-cell configuration with 210 mm wafer size and a rated power of 675 W. DAS Solar’s DAS-DH144PA module is based on a 144-cell and 182 mm wafer format. LONGi’s Hi-MO 5m module is built with 144 cells of 182 mm cell size, offering 560 W of power. Suntech’s Ultra V module has a 144-half-cell design based on the 182 mm wafer format and a rated power output of 560 W. As mentioned above, Tongwei’s shingled interconnection technology-based product with 21.7% efficiency and a power output of 430 W has been delisted as the company is not offering the module anymore.
In December 2024, JinkoSolar’s Tiger Pro module, previously ranked 39th with an efficiency of 21.68%, was delisted due to the unavailability of its datasheet on the company’s official website. This left Akcome's iChaser PERC module, with the same efficiency of 21.68%, rated power of 560 W, and a 144-cell design using 182 mm wafers, as the sole occupant of the 39th rank. However, in January 2025, the Akcome module was also delisted as its website was inaccessible. With Talesun’s PERC module delisted in October, the 41st rank was shared by GCL SI, Trinasolar, and JA Solar, all with an efficiency of 21.6%. Following JinkoSolar’s delisting in December, these 3 modules moved up to the 40th rank. By January 2025, with the reduction of 3 products, the ranking further shifted to 37th. GCL SI and Trinasolar’s modules share a power rating of 670 W, both featuring 132 half-cells of G12 size. In contrast, JA Solar’s DeepBlue 3.0, built with 156 half-cells of M10 size, has a lower power rating of 605 W.
The next 7 products, with an efficiency of 21.57%, share the 40th rank. Jinergy, Qn-Solar, Seraphim, Yingli and ZNShine leverage bifacial capabilities, while modules from SolarSpace and URECO are not specified. All these products are built with 132 half-cells of the 210 mm wafer format interconnected with MBB. Not just efficiency, these 7 products have the same rated power of 670 W due to the same wafer format and the count of half-cell strips.
EGing PV’s PERC product is the sole occupant of the current 47th rank, moving up from the 53rd place it had slipped to in April. It has a lower efficiency of 21.56%, but the power rating of 670 W is the same as the products from the group above.
The lowest efficiency of 21.5%, which is also the minimum criterion to be included in this list, is represented by 3 products at rank 48 – Runergy, Qcells and CECEP. Astronergy’s longstanding PERC module, which entered our listing in September 2023, was delisted in October 2024.
