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US President Donald Trump swept back into office last year on a mission to cut renewable energy out of the nation’s power generation profile. So much for that. Defeat is already staring him in the eye. The double whammy of solar power plus storage keeps on beating fossil fuels by a wide margin, and new solar factories keep sprouting up like mushrooms after the rain. The latest development in factory news is particularly interesting because it represents the transition to more efficient, next-generation solar cell technology.
An Industry In Transition
Until recently, the global solar industry was dominated by conventional PERC (passive emitter rear contact) solar cells. Other forms have shown early promise of superior performance, but PERC solar cells were more economical to fabricate as the mass market took shape. They quickly outran the competition, with durability being among the advantages.
Now that the industry is shifting gears into higher-performing systems, Texas is front and center. The state is already one of the solar manufacturing hotspots in the US, and the Japanese firm TOYO Solar is among those growing its business there. The company specializes in HJT solar cells, which deploy three layers of material operating in tandem.