Canadian Solar recently announced that as of December 31 2018 it had shipped a total of 2.6GW of high-efficiency anti-LeTID PERC solar modules. This new sales figure is a huge milestone for the company, which is dedicated to developing high-efficiency panels.
What’s anti Le-TID?
LeTID, as it’d be known if it had any friends, is light and elevated temperature-induced degradation. In PERC solar modules this phenomenon usually occurs when the temperature within the module exceeds 50C. In some cases, the degradation and loss of performance can reach 10%, both for multi and monocrystalline PERC modules.
The R&D guys at Canadian have spent years working on ways to mitigate LeTID by changing and improving the processes, materials and equipment used to make the modules. They’ve succeeded and so now the world has access to their innovative proprietary tech.
More about PERC panels
Solar panels with passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) technology can offer much more efficiency than the standard aluminium back surface field (Al BSF) cells. This in turn reduces the power system’s balance of system (BOS) costs. PERC panels don’t lose as much output as Al BSF panels do when the temperature rises and they also don’t get as hot in the first place. This means that users get more power from their panels, more consistently and so their return on investment is better with PERC.
Canadian Solar plans to upscale its PERCs
Third-party testing has also backed up Canadian Solar’s claims about its low LeTID, so users can feel reassured. Canadian is one of only a few cell and module makers that can make large volumes of modules and still maintain its anti-Le-TID stripes. The company’s P4 modules, for example, show less than 0.3% degradation in open-circuit voltage (VOC) after almost 170 hours of irradiation (at the equivalent of the sun) and at 75C. This is an industry record.
Over the next year or so, Canadian plans to convert all of its production capacity into PERC, bringing sunshine and power to an increasing number of homes across the world.
We only install Tier 1 solar panels from Canadian Solar.
