Panasonic Corporation launched a conversion efficiency of 25.6% (cell area*3: 143.7 cm2) in its HIT® solar cells, a major increase over the previous world record for crystalline silicon-based solar cells.

The previous record*4 for the conversion efficiency of crystalline silicon-based solar cells of a practical size (100 cm2 and over) was 24.7%, as announced by Panasonic in February 2013 (cell area: 101.8 cm2). The new record is 0.9 points higher and the first to break through the 25% barrier for practical size cells.

This new record is also an improvement of 0.6 points over the previous record for small area crystalline silicon-based solar cells (cell area: 4 cm2) of 25.0%*4, 5.

The achievement of this new record was made possible by further development of Panasonic’s proprietary heterojunction technology*6 to realize the high conversion efficiency and superior high temperature properties of the company’s HIT solar cells as well as adopting a back-contact solar cell structure, with the electrodes on the back of the solar cell, which allows the more efficient utilization of sunlight.