Sanyo Electric has released the 220W HIT (hetrojunction with intrinsic thin layer) photovoltaic module. It will be available in Europe from next month. The hybrid modules have an amorphous silicon film layer over a crystalline silicon substrate. The advantage of the construction lies in the deposition of a high-quality a-Si layer on the surface of a c-Si substrate, the energy-generation layer. This reduces the recombination loss caused by charged carriers and electrical particles. In solar cells, it is necessary to transmit the sunlight that hits the cell surface to the c-Si layer with as little energy loss as possible. Moreover, it is necessary to collect the generated electricity with as little resistance loss as possible. Compared with the previous generation, the company has reduced the optical absorption loss in the a-Si and transparent conductive layers to minimise both the optical and electrical losses. The adoption of anti-reflection glass has reduced light reflection and scattering. The module has an energy-conversion efficiency of 17.4%, achieved through the improved efficiency of the company's proprietary HIT1 module technology over a previous module, which had a maximum output of 215W. The module has a high energy-conversion efficiency of 16% or more, providing substantial user benefits, claims the firm, when compared to regular crystalline-type modules with conversion efficiencies between 12 and 14%.
