Chinese solar panel giant Longi Green Energy Technology has unveiled a new wafer that can be used to make a wide range of N-type high-efficiency solar cells, with plans to start mass production in September.

The Tairui wafer can be used to produce N-type tunnel oxide passivated contact, or TOPCon, heterojunction technology, or HJT, and back contact, or BC, solar cells, Longi announced yesterday. It can be supplied to all high-efficiency photovoltaic cell manufacturers that adopt the three technologies, it added.

Longi plans to transform and produce the new wafer at all its plants as soon as possible, said Deng Hao, head of the firm's silicon wafer research and development center. It shipped a small-batch of Tairui last year, Deng noted.

Tairui can help enhance downstream solar cell photoelectric conversion efficiency and improve the quality of PV modules, Deng said. With production growing, its related expenses may decline to the level of existing wafers or even lower despite high costs in the initial stage of using new technologies, Deng added.

With fierce competition in the wafer market, new products that can bring value to customers will likely help suppliers gain higher product premiums and market shares, an industry insider told Yicai.

There is an overcapacity in China's solar wafer, which has caused wafer prices to drop about 20 percent since last December and has narrowed suppliers' profit margins, with some already in the red.

Longi's solar wafer shipments reached 52 gigawatts in the first half of last year, giving it a global market share of 23 percent. Its annual production capacity totaled 190 GW as of the end of 2023.