Why are solar cell sizes in solar panels getting bigger and bigger?
Solar panels have increased in power over time. This is largely driven by innovative technology in the solar cells themselves, although improvements in panel assembly technology have also played a role. This is illustrated by the following specific changes:
Prior to 2010, monocrystalline wafer sizes were small, 125mm*125mm and a few 156*156mm wafers. after 2010, 156*156 monocrystalline wafers dominate the market. It has been said before that the power of a solar panel depends on the size of the solar cell. After that, the solar cell manufacturing industry and the process accelerated, and solar cells of 166*166mm, 182*182mm, 210*210mm and other sizes slowly emerged onto the market. It is easy to see that the size of silicon wafers has been increasing, the reason is that large size silicon wafers reduce the cost of solar modules at the silicon end, and amortize the non-silicon cost per watt in the panel, module and system segments, with significant economic benefits. Therefore, the development of large silicon wafer sizes has become inevitable.
Why are solar cell sizes getting bigger and bigger?
In terms of output: the production rate of solar cells is basically fixed, in other words the process of making a 156*156mm solar cell is the same as a 166*166mm solar cell, and the time and labour costs are also the same. So people are naturally willing to spend almost the same amount of money to get a higher power solar cell.
Secondly from a plant system point of view, for the same power system, the modules get more power due to larger solar cells while the number of modules in a string remains the same, so the efficiency of the modules on a single stand increases accordingly and the cost per Wp of the stand and staking is reduced; the installation efficiency per Wp of modules and stands increases when large modules have little impact on transport and installation speed; as the capacity of each array is determined by the inverter and can be considered fixed, high power modules can reduce the use of busbars or string inverters and the use of fewer mounts can reduce the footprint of the array (considering the front-to-back and left-to-right spacing of the mounts) and reducing the number of mounts and their footprint can reduce the cables used for power.
We are a professional manufacturer and supplier of solar energy, specialising in mono and polycrystalline silicon solar photovoltaic panels, solar cells, solar power systems, flexible VA solar panels solar water pumps and solar street lights.
If you are interested in our solar products, why not ask us for advice and custom purchase of solar panels?