PV Manufacturer’s Perspective: Balancing Cost & Quality
Source：taiyangnews
JA Solar Offered Insights On Maintaining The Balance Between Cost And Quality Amidst Historically Low Global PV Price Trends
Maintaining equilibrium: JA Solar has provided a brief overview of how to maintain the balance between cost and reliability in the low-price era. (Photo Credit: TaiyangNews)
Today’s high-efficiency n-type PV modules come with power warranties of up to 30 years. However, the ongoing global trend of low PV module prices, driven by overcapacity in China’s PV value chain, is raising concerns among panel buyers about product quality and reliability.
Ignacio Espinosa, Head of the European Technical Team at JA Solar, shared insights on how the vertically integrated company balances cost optimization with the quality and reliability of its products at the recently held TaiyangNews Reliable PV Module Design Virtual Conference (see here JA Solar's presentation). He also discussed the company’s technology roadmap and product offerings.
JA Solar, a company with over 20 years of experience and an annual production capacity of 85 GW for ingots and wafers and 100 GW for cells and modules, has consistently delivered high-quality products. According to the company, this consistency is driven by its commitment to no compromise on quality, its practice of gathering continuous performance feedback from the 200 GW of modules it has shipped globally, and its control over the entire supply chain. The company operates worldwide manufacturing facilities in China, Vietnam, and the US, and claims to have an integrated traceability system that ensures the quality of raw materials across the value chain. JA Solar says it enhances the quality and cost-effectiveness of its end products by controlling both the raw materials and the manufacturing processes.
As a leading adopter of TOPCon cell technology, JA Solar has a 70:30 split for TOPCon and PERC cell production till 2024. The company, which strongly supports the 1,134 mm module standard width, offers a wide range of DeepBlue 4.0 series modules for various applications, including residential, commercial & industrial (C&I), and utility sectors. These products range from 455 W residential modules made with 54 TOPCon cells to 640 W, 72-cell TOPCon modules. Having allocated a significant annual budget for research and development (R&D), the module manufacturer plans to launch TOPCon modules with a power rating of over 700 W by 2025. In addition, the company is unveiling several new technologies and products, including a floating PV application module, a monofacial n-type TOPCon model with a special bill of materials (BOM) to mitigate degradation through the backsheet, a busbarless (0BB) TOPCon module, and a module with anti-glare properties.
Manufacturing Quality Control
In an era of low-priced, high-efficiency modules and rapidly evolving designs, maintaining cost control without compromising quality has become crucial. JA Solar has addressed this challenge with 2 solutions: enhancing manufacturing process efficiency and strengthening BOM materials. The company has implemented a stringent quality control plan (QCP) at every stage of the manufacturing process, including incoming quality control (IQC), inline process quality control (IPQC), and final quality control (FQC). By controlling quality at each stage – such as conducting 100% electroluminescence (EL) checks before and after lamination, performing 100% visual inspections, and periodically calibrating measuring tools – JA Solar says it has achieved cost-optimized quality control. On the materials side, the adoption of 0BB metallization has led to manufacturing cost savings without compromising efficiency.
Ensuring Reliability
Following strict quality control, the company's modules, with a warranted power performance of up to 30 years, have been validated by in-house extended environmental stress laboratories and 3rd-party testing facilities, including PI-Berlin, RETC, and others. In-house tests include static mechanical load, dynamic mechanical load, and hail tests. The company also noted that it has introduced new test chambers to address UV-related degradation in TOPCon modules.