- Since Q3, 2022, JinkoSolar has launched its N-type TOPCon panel named Tiger Neo, which powered the initial surge of customers for higher generation performance.
- A few years on, solar makers have woken up with their own TOPCon products, which are being marketed as alternatives to PERC.
JinkoSolar knows the competition is coming and has taken steps to maintain its dominance. The first, and perhaps most significant, is the acceleration of the Tiger Neo efficiency iterating cycle and yield rate. In 18 months, the module efficiency has increased from 22.4% to 24.06%. The yield rate of competitors is still a work in progress, while JinkoSolar’s yield rate reached a high of 98%, equal to PERC.
The TOPCon rush resulted in an overwhelming demand for JinkoSolar’s Tiger Neo. A long line included large utility customers who had to wait for the Tiger Neo to improve their project performance and ROI. The company has also signed a long-term frame contract with ACAW at SNEC committed to using Tiger Neo.
According to Dany Qian, VP of JinkoSolar. The company expects to release a 0.5% efficiency enhancement every year, a step up from its previous PERC optimization cycle. The company’s 630W Tiger Neo are still in short supply, but during the SNEC, Jinko announced the 650W 66-cell Tiger Neo panel, which delivers the same performance but has higher efficiency and more power.
In addition to the all-scenario better performance metric of Tiger Neo, JinkoSolar has a stronger eco-system stack and has better customization of applications to its modules. The anti-dust accumulation panel, the triple strengthened panel (hail resistant, fire resistant, hurricane resistant), and the 450W all-black residential panel are other highlights of JinkoSolar’s booth as the solar application scenario gets more complex and demanding. The early adopters of HJT, BC or other technologies are shying away from these products into TOPCon. The TOPCon-backed projects have been proven to provide significantly better return on investment than any other else in all scenarios.
Other technologies were sleeping when TOPCon was commercialized. They weren’t ready for post-PERC, their spec and real-world performance was broken, cost and yield rate were hard to improve, the supply chain was weak, and customers weren’t featured on their long-term roadmap. “At the current stage of restriction on newly added capacity, other technologies have the few opportunities to catch up or to have comparable value to TOPCon,” said Dany Qian, Vice President of JinkoSolar.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
