Panasonic Corporation was presented with the IEEE Corporate Innovation Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) at the IEEE Honors Ceremony held recently in Boston. Panasonic was cited for developing and commercialising high performance heterojunction solar technology (HIT) by the IEEE, the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.
Panasonic’s HIT solar cells have a unique hybrid structure comprised of amorphous silicon and crystalline silicon, for which the company embarked on research and development in 1990. Today, HIT solar cells have achieved a conversion efficiency of 23.9 per cent at R&D level and 21.6 per cent at mass production level. The company now has a total production capacity of 600MW of HIT solar cells per year, meeting demand in the three major markets of Japan, Europe, and the US. With its new Malaysian factory – an integrated production site for wafers (slicing), cells, and panels-coming on stream by year-end, Panasonic is ready to handle robust global demand for solar cells.
