Jolywood starts mass production of low-silver TOPCon solar cells
AI Analysis
Summary
The Chinese manufacturer said its novel TOPCon cell design enables partial replacement of silver with aluminum paste while maintaining TOPCon-level efficiency of over 27% and compatibility with existing production lines.
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">The Chinese manufacturer said its novel TOPCon cell design enables partial replacement of silver with aluminum paste while maintaining TOPCon-level efficiency of over 27% and compatibility with existing production lines.</span></p><p>Chinese PV manufacturer <a href="https://www.pv-magazine.com/2025/05/02/jolywoods-laser-assisted-firing-process-increases-topcon-solar-cell-efficiency-by-0-6-says-unsw-research/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jolywood</a> has started mass production of TOPCon solar cells with low-silver content at its factory in Taiyuan, Shanxi province.</p>
<p>Dubbed Nano Armor Metal Inter-Contact (Namic), the new cell architecture is designed to prevent aluminum diffusion into the silicon structure while maintaining vertical conductivity and limiting lateral conductivity. This enables partial substitution of silver paste with lower-cost aluminum paste in TOPCon metallization processes.</p>
<p>Jolywood said the mass-produced Namic cells have achieved conversion efficiencies above 27%, broadly in line with existing TOPCon products. The first-generation Namic 1.0 design uses silver paste on the front side and aluminum paste on the rear side. The process is reportedly compatible with existing TOPCon production lines.</p>
<p>For the Namic 1.0 upgrade, Jolywood said only additional laser equipment is required. The company has begun retrofitting part of its Shanxi capacity and plans an initial 8 GW conversion. The aluminum paste used in the process is sourced from the market, rather than requiring a dedicated supply chain, the company added.</p>
<p>Jolywood said the cells also demonstrated high-temperature resistance, ultraviolet (UV) stability and anti-potential-induced degradation (PID)-performance in reliability testing.</p>
<p>The company has also outlined a three-stage roadmap. Namic 1.0 focuses on rear-side silver reduction while maintaining TOPCon-level efficiency. Namic 2.0 is expected to increase module power, while Namic 3.0 is planned as a full aluminum-paste back-contact cell design.</p>
<p>The company said it remains open to future patent licensing under suitable conditions, noting that Namic commercialization will be a key focus of its research and industrialization work in 2026, alongside development in perovskite and back-contact technologies.</p>