The last few months have seen a number of changes and launches in the solar industry. Various trends also crystallized very strongly during this time. Particularly at the world’s largest solar PV trade fair, SNEC, in Shanghai, clear developments could be seen with regard to the uniform use of a specific cell size. Increasingly, leading manufacturers are installing cells with a size of 210mm x 210mm. Longi Solar, Jinko Solar and ZNshine were among the few manufacturers at the show to exclusively use 182mm x 182mm cells. Solar module manufacturers such as Candian Solar and JA Solar have even decided to use both variants within their manufacturing.
Moreover, today, in September 2021, we can observe that manufacturers such as Jinko Solar and Longi Solar, would like to continue to rely on 182mm x 182mm cells in the future. This is especially evident with the announcement of an agreement between JA Solar, Jinko Solar and Longi Solar regarding the standardization of 182mm (M10) wafers.
Within the following table we have summarized the technical facts, which were announced within the declaration of the three Chinese PV manufacturers:
| Size | Hole Spacing | |
| 54-cell panels | 1.722 × 1.134 mm | 1.400 mm |
| 72-cell panels | 2.278 × 1.134 mm | 1.400 mm |
| 78-cell panels | 2.465 × 1.134 mm | 400 mm to 1.500 mm |
Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/09/09/ja-solar-jinko-solar-longi-reach-consensus-on-182mm-module-standardization/
However, this type of wafer is no longer completely unknown on the market. Already in June 2020, solar modules based on M10 wafers were placed on the market by the three major groups. According to a statement published by the manufacturers, this wafer size already experienced great acceptance within the target group at that time. However, due to differences in the technical roadmap, design concept and installation method of different manufacturers, the standards of the same module types vary in length, width and hole spacing, although they are based on the same M10 wafer technology.
The newly set parameters, which you can take a look at again in the previous table, are aimed at unifying the component specifications. These standardizations are intended to reduce the general manufacturing costs and also simplify the design and installation in downstream production.
Conclusion
This type of standardization, can lead to increased margins in the long run. For this reason, we believe that such standardization can have a fundamentally positive effect.
References
Vincent Shaw ? PV-Magazin; T SNEC trends in 2021; 08.07.2021; https://www.pv-magazine.com/magazine-archive/snec-trends-in-2021/
Emiliano Bellini ? PV-Magazin;
JA Solar, JinkoSolar, Longi reach consensus on 182mm module standardization; 09.09.2021; https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/09/09/ja-solar-jinko-solar-longi-reach-consensus-on-182mm-module-standardization/
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