The international research group led by Professor Martin Green from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia has published Version 68 of the “Solar Cell Efficiency Tables” in Joule.

“One major change is that the Tables will be appearing ‘open access’ in the July 2026 issue,” Green told pv magazine. “This change reflects the growing photovoltaic impact in mainstream energy and the scientific progress achieved over the 33 years of publications of these tables. The biannual publication of the open access Tables will continue in Joule on the regular schedule of January and July. The authors are excited by this opening to a broader readership and by the continued growth of the photovoltaic community.”

Version 68 reports 21 new results. “Two of the most exciting are new records for both large area silicon cells and modules, with 28.1% efficiency reported for a large cell, 140-cm2 in area, and 26.4% for an encapsulated 1.9-m2 module,” Green added. “The cell and the module were both fabricated by Longi, with both positive and negative polarity contacts on the rear of all the cells involved.”

Both records were measured with masking that shades the edges of the cell and module. In the case of the module, this means that, to set a record, a module does not have to artificially skimp on either the isolation zone required around the module perimeter or on the strength of the frame. For a cell, it allows more direct comparison with other cell technologies where such masking during measurement is routine or even essential to get accurate results. “However, for comparison with other silicon cells fabricated with alternative approaches with different tolerances to edge effects, unmasked ‘total area’ measurements are more sensible,” Green emphasized. “Compared to the above 28.1% result, efficiency drops only slightly to 27.8% when a different cell from Longi was measured unmasked, also a new record for such ‘total area’ measurements.”

Another interesting new result was measurement of 28.0% efficiency for a very small 0.05-cm2 lead halide perovskite cell fabricated by Hainan University, the smallest cell size accepted for inclusion in the Tables. Although this cell is over 2,500 times smaller, it is now close to matching the performance of the best silicon cells, somewhat of a landmark in perovskite cell development. “However, perovskite module efficiencies still lag well behind silicon, with recent improvements reported to 19.3% efficiency for a 0.72-m2 module and 22.1% for a smaller 0.08-m2 module, both fabricated by RenShine Solar, the latter in conjunction with Nanjing University,” Green said.

Remarkable progress is also reported with perovskite-silicon tandem cells and modules. Efficiency was increased to 35.2% and 34.3% for small (1-cm2) and much larger (261-cm2) cells , respectively, and to 31.4% and 29.4% for small (0.17-m2) and large (1.7-m2) modules, with all these cells and modules fabricated by Longi. Finally, 34.4% is reported for a much smaller 0.08-m2 module using triple-junction GaInP/GaInAs/Ge tandem cells, fabricated by the Fraunhofer Institute in conjunction with Azur Space and temicon (sic). “This is a new record for any module not relying on concentrating the sunlight,” Green stated.

Version 67 presented 17 new efficiency results.One of the most representative was a 27.9%-efficient interdigitated-back-contact (IBC) device developed by Longi, which received validation by Germany’s Institute für Solarenergieforschung (ISFH).

In Version 66 of the tables, the team presented 21 new results, including the then record efficiency of 27.81% achieved by Chinese manufacturer Longi for its hybrid interdigitated back contact (HIBC) crystalline silicon solar cell.

In Version 65, the researchers added 17 new results.

The group has seen major improvements in all cell categories since 1993, when the tables were first published. It ncludes scientists from the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and the Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH), Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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