Photovoltaics Revolutionizes Energy Market with Bifacial Solar Cells, Achieving Record Low Electricity Production Costs.

Photovoltaics, known as the ‘king of energy markets’ since 2020, has made the technology cheap and effective by increasing efficiency and increasing production and installation. The c-Si solar cell technology has been under evolutionary development for years, with continuous improvements including the introduction of bifacial cells that absorb solar radiation from both sides, which can increase energy yield in large systems by up to 25%. However, bringing these modules to market has been a process that involved several stakeholders, including Panasonic/SANYO, LG, Prismsolar, BOSCH Solar, PVGS and Yingli. The breakthrough came at bifiPV2018 in Denver and the publication of the IEC TS 60904-1-2 in 2019, which led to standardization and building credibility and bankability for solar project developers. In 2019, bifictional modules were sold in double-digit GW numbers for the first time. So far, this technology is widely accepted as a positive development, contributing to electricity production costs as low as US$1ct/kWh and contributing to the lowest LCOEs ever.