This week sees the publication of the annual ITRPV report, compiled by German engineering association VDMA. Now in its 16th edition, the report takes an in-depth at technology trends across the supply chain for silicon PV products.

VDMA calculates PV module shipments in 2024 at 703 GW, with average prices having dropped by 33% compared to the end of 2023.

The report also reveals that crystalline silicon PV technologies continue to dominate the global market with a share of around 98%, with n-type wafers accounting for a 70% share.

“This comes with the expansion of n-type TOPCon technology that dominates the market for the first time, overtaking p-type PERC,” VDMA said in a statement. “Silicon heterojunction (SHJ), back contact (BC) cells, TOPCon-based back contact (TBC) and heterojunction-based back contact (HBC) are expected to gain market share.”

VDMA experts also found that G12 wafers may reach a 10% market share, with rectangular M10 formats being able to maintain a 15% participation.

As for the dominance of TOPCon, products manufactured via laser enhanced contact optimization (LECO) should have a 60% share in 2024 and 87% by 2035.

“Selective emitters use declines with non-LECO variants phasing out by 2027. Edge passivation of separated solar cells by deposition processes also gain importance for half cells or smaller, dominating the market in a decade,” the report notes. “At the module level, copper interconnection is projected to continue dominating the market for cell-to-cell and string interconnection.”