Solar Inventions receives important cell patent in China

Solar Inventions USA has announced that it has been granted important new patents in China, the USA and Israel for its innovation to invent improved solar PV cell and module architectures. The patent in the US significantly extends the claims of the company's first issued patent US 11145774 and now includes the most modern cell architecture.

In China, Solar Inventions filed patent CN 111868935 for C3 technology on 21 October 2022 and patent IL 279079 was issued in Israel in November, with both patents due to be granted around 1 February 2023 in accordance with the normal process.

In addition, patents are pending in the European Union, plus Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam, which together account for nearly 90% of the global solar market.

According to the company's CEO, Dr Ben Damiani: "As the solar industry moves to new cell architectures such as Topcon and HJT, and as global production continues to accelerate, the economics of configurable (C3)1 current cells become increasingly important, with C3 technology significantly reducing the silver cost for solar cell manufacturers while increasing power and resilience."

Dr Damiani explains that in his research he has discovered that multiple 'channels' or sub-cells can be created on a single wafer by electrically splitting each cell during the metallisation process. The technology effectively creates a new architecture that can improve cell, module and system performance, and the resistive boundary sub-cells in C3 are expected to spawn a whole new set of innovations while saving up to 18% of the silver required - $2-5 million per GW at current silver prices.

Instead, the improved cells and modules require no capital expenditure or process changes by the PV cell manufacturer and can easily be manufactured on existing PV plant lines without the need for any new equipment or materials. Manufacturers who license the technology will only have to pay a fraction of the silver saved, the company says, thus guaranteeing increased profits from the first cell produced using C3.