Photovoltaics module technology accelerates beyond 25% efficiency

The global photovoltaic industry continues to undergo major changes. Between national policies, increasingly fierce competition and new industrial investment, cell and module technology has accelerated rapidly.

And although margins remained under pressure last year due to unprecedented manufacturing overcapacity, between the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026 the sector crossed a symbolic threshold that until recently had been confined to laboratories: 25% module efficiency.

The breakthrough remains relatively limited in terms of the number of companies and commercial technologies involved, but it points to a clear direction. It has also helped lift the weighted average spot price of crystalline silicon, or c-Si, modules after the historic low reached between mid-2024 and the summer of last year.

Of course, the recovery is not solely linked to technological progress. Many of the regulatory measures introduced by Beijing have helped lift prices, even though the balance between supply and demand remains some way off. But it is worth taking a closer look at what is happening in solar innovation.


TOPCon completes the overtaking, back contact opens the 25% era


From a purely technological perspective, supply chain data point to a transition that is now essentially complete.

TOPCon, the n-type cell technology based on tunnel oxide passivated contacts, overtook PERC's market share as early as 2024 and consolidated its leadership during 2025.

TaiyangNews' monthly surveys of the highest-efficiency commercial modules show that the share of TOPCon products in its ranking increased from 33% in January 2024 to 53% in June 2026. Over the same period, PERC fell from 44% to 24%, partly due to the progressive retirement of older production lines.

Silicon heterojunction technology, HJT/SHJ, remained relatively stable at around 16-20%, confirming its position as a niche but well-established solution.

It should be noted that the list is not exhaustive, as it only includes panels with efficiencies above 21.5% and considers just one flagship product per manufacturer.

More realistically, TOPCon panels are estimated to account for around 65% of the market, with lower shares for both PERC and HJT.

The real technological advance, however, is coming from back-contact photovoltaics, or BC.

In April 2026, two companies, AIKO and LONGi, brought modules with 25% efficiency to market, the first time a mass-produced product had crossed this threshold.

The milestone carries more symbolic than numerical weight. BC still accounts for only 5-7% of products on the market, reflecting how much more complex the technology remains to industrialise at scale compared with TOPCon.

But if this segment has demonstrated one thing, it is its ability to advance rapidly. Over the years, the production capacity of a single line has increased more than fivefold. Thanks to the rapid development of laser patterning and continued advances in wet processing, BC solar cell production has been reduced from more than 20 processing steps initially to 12.

As a result, its technological maturity and cost competitiveness now appear close to those of conventional technology.

In terms of conversion efficiency, the solar industry broke another psychological barrier in March 2026 when JA Solar brought a TOPCon module to 24.1% efficiency, the first product in its category to exceed 24%.

Heterojunction technology, meanwhile, reached 23.8% with Risen, surpassing the previous benchmark set by Huasun.

The race for absolute power output has not stopped either. Current products reach up to 740 W for a Risen HJT module, 735 W for Tongwei's TOPCon and 675 W for AIKO BC modules.

For African solar markets, where module performance can be an important consideration for both distributed and utility-scale projects, advances across these technologies are also relevant given the global reach of the photovoltaic supply chain.


New drivers of technological progress


China's new mandatory national standards for modules and inverters could provide another boost to technological development.

The move will replicate policies previously adopted to encourage the phase-out of obsolete equipment and promote innovation.

More specifically, the new rules will establish a technological "survival line". To access the domestic market, modules will have to guarantee specific minimum efficiency levels.

A points-based classification system has been designed to set different values for different technologies:
 

• TOPCon modules: minimum efficiency is expected to be around 22.4%, with higher grades exceeding 23.2% and 23.6%
   
• Heterojunction modules (HJT): the lowest threshold is set at 22.5%
   
• Back-contact modules (BC): a minimum of 23.3% is required

The standard will, of course, apply only to Chinese companies. But in a world where the Asian giant dominates more than 80% of the solar supply chain, it is easy to imagine the effects extending beyond China's borders and providing further momentum to global technological progress.


How far can photovoltaic module efficiency go?


And what about the medium-term future?

According to the 17th edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaics, or ITRPV, published by industry group VDMA Photovoltaic Equipment, the next ten years could see module efficiency reach 26.3% for single-junction technologies.

Beyond that threshold, according to the ITRPV survey, attention will inevitably turn to tandem cells based on silicon and, most likely, perovskites.

This combination has already demonstrated its ability to exceed the theoretical Shockley-Queisser limit for single-junction cells, set at around 33.7%, although so far only under laboratory conditions.

LONGi currently holds the NREL-certified record with a 34.85% tandem cell, a milestone reached just over a year after the theoretical threshold was first exceeded at the end of 2023.

However, a significant gap remains between a laboratory record and a module that ultimately reaches a rooftop or solar farm.

Oxford PV, a company founded as a spin-off from the University of Oxford and now considered one of the sector's leading pioneers, produces tandem modules with certified efficiencies of around 26-27% at its plant in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, and has begun supplying some batches to utility-scale customers in the United States.

Volumes, however, remain limited and are still far from genuine large-scale commercialisation.

Nevertheless, the most optimistic analyses expect double-junction photovoltaics to enter mass production around 2027, with estimated module efficiency reaching 27.4% as early as 2028.



This article was realized in collaboration with Rinnovabili.