JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd., one of the world's largest manufacturers of high-performance solar power products, today announced that its p-type mono-crystalline silicon ("mono-Si") solar cells, a new family of high-performance solar cells dubbed "PERCIUM," have surpassed 20% conversion efficiency.

The newly achieved conversion efficiency, which has been independently confirmed and certified by the Fraunhofer ISE's photovoltaic calibration laboratory (CalLab) in Freiburg, Germany, sets an industry-leading level for industrial size (156x156 mm2) solar cells using p-type mono-Si wafers.

The breakthrough follows JA Solar's recent announcement of the industry-leading efficiency of its multi-crystalline silicon ("multi-Si") solar cells. JA Solar plans to introduce the new cell technology into mass production within the next six months and integrate the new high-efficiency cells into module assembly lines for commercial use.

"This latest above 20% conversion efficiency of solar cells using p-type mono-Si wafers is of great importance in terms of cost-effectively manufacturing high-performance solar cells and modules," said Mr. Yong Liu, CTO of JA Solar. "It is also a further boost to our efforts to meet the growing demand for high-performance solar power products."

"This result builds on the momentum that our R&D team has generated in recent months," added Dr. Wei Shan, chief scientist and general R&D manager of JA Solar. "We have repeatedly achieved average conversion efficiency of over 20% since May of this year on over 10,000 cells. We're fully confident in bringing such products to serve our clients' needs. Our R&D team has an excellent track record of commercializing cutting-edge technologies and we look forward to transitioning these high-efficiency cells into mass production soon."