Why Mono-PERC Is No Longer a Money-Maker? Emmvee Explains

Bangalore-based solar module and cell manufacturing company Emmvee Photovoltaics, which has shifted most of its production towards TOPCon, says that the avenues for Mono-PERC technology have dwindled. The top management of the firm, in its maiden investor call post its IPO, explained the reasons behind the downfall of mono-PERC-based solar modules in India.

Suhas Manjunatha, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the firm, explained why mono-PERC cells and the modules made from the technology have lost the shine they enjoyed barely one to two years ago. He also cited the example of China, where the majority of production now comes from TOPCon cells, while explaining the technological intricacies.

The module maker told investors that making a mono-PERC module has now become more expensive than TOPCon due to technical reasons. He added that this comes at a time when buyers are not willing to pay more for a mono-PERC module than for a higher-efficiency TOPCon module.

“My cell cost right now for Mono PERC is more expensive than TopCon. The reason is the availability of Monoperc has reduced across the world because China has completely transitioned to Topcon. Very small capacity of Monoperc is available. Then, what is there is right now so even though it is going to be more expensive for me to make a Monoperc module as against a Topcon module, I cannot sell Monoperc higher. In fact, I have to sell Monoperc lower than Topcon because for the developer it is going to be more expensive to use Monoperc module than Topcon module,” Suhas told investors.

Emmvee’s Customer Base

Emmvee’s views on the technological comparison also stem from its client base and order book. As per the company’s client-based division, around 43.28% of its clients are Independent Power Producers (IPP) while 38.62% are Commercial & Industrial (C&I) consumers. For the publicly listed firm, its clients are mainly large ground-mounted solar consumers. The management said that the key demand for IPPs is now TOPCon, primarily because of the lowest LCOE on this technology, lower land requirement (due to more efficient panels), and higher efficiencies.

“IPPs are only preferring Topcon because what happens is from Monoperc to Topcon, you’re seeing more than one, one and a half percent increase in efficiencies. That is, you know, at the current moment. But Monoperc has a limit, theoretical limitation of 25% when it comes to efficiency and that means practically you will be only able to do 24% which we are already at and at Topcon on the other hand as a theoretical efficiency limit of 29% and we are only at 25.5% today and it is only increasing now. So with this the developer is going to save on land, they’re going to save on BOS cost and they’re going to save drastically. So that way what happens is, you know, it becomes a very important thing for them to use a higher efficiency modules, which is why it becomes a natural choice for the customer,” Suhas said in the investor's call.

When asked if an existing mono-PERC line could be converted into a TOPCon line easily, the company talked about numerous challenges inherent to such a technological upgrade, which does not favour this transition without higher capital and other logistics. The management explained that while mono-PERC is an eight-step process, TOPCon requires 14 steps. This translates to almost double the space and a larger clean room area.

“Let’s say you already have a clean room that is big enough, but then that clean room is now built for Monoperc, it is usually Class 8 clean room that is required. For Topcon you need Class 6 clean room. That is 185 times you have to change air inside the room every hour for Class 6. Which is close to semiconductor grade clean room and greater than a pharma grade clean room. So that kind of upgradation needs to be done,” Suhas said.

He also added, “And then there is a... there is water consumption that is required almost one and a half times. Then gases... there are more gases required than what is required for Monoperc... power, that is more power required than what was required for Monoperc. That is 1.6 times more required. And again all the chemicals and gases you use, you need to treat that. So all your scrubber systems, your ETP, everything needs to be again sized much higher. So what has happened, what we have seen in China is that people have built new Topcon facilities and not converted their Monoperc facilities. So it is practically a very challenging task,” Suhas said.

Interestingly, the company cited lower water and power use, among other things to assert that it found the difference between European supplied cell manufacturing machinery and Chinese machinery 'negligible'.    

Views On Overcapacity

The top management of the company, when asked about overcapacity, explained with numbers how serious players remain viable even in such an environment. It said that last year, excluding 15 GW of module exports, 26 GW of solar modules were installed in India from domestic sources, despite the installed production capacity of 82 GW. This, the firm said, proves that only serious players can remain viable.

“For that kind of a number of only 26 gigawatt of actual utilization out of 82 gigawatt of capacity, the companies like Emmvee are delivering numbers year on year. So that is something the fragmentation the industry has, and serious players in this industry are the ones those are relied on for the demand from developers,” it said.

On Standalone Module Makers

The company said that over time, standalone module production would become redundant. “when look at standalone module manufacturers, I think the roadmap of the industry is quite clear that in the next couple of years the standalone module capacity in India starts to become irrelevant and the focus is going to be completely on integrated module manufacturers. And for now, integrated manufacturers mean cell and module. And going forward with the roadmap the ministry has announced, it is for people who are also going to get into wafers and ingots,” the top management of the firm said.