Solar Frontier has announced that it has started shipping 150 Watt CIS modules after accelerating its production roadmap and achieving production targets ahead of schedule at its state-of-the-art Kunitomi plant in Japan.

These high-performance modules are now shipping to customers around the world. The company also announced that it expects TUV and UL certification for soon-to-be-available 155W panels in the coming weeks as its flagship gigawatt-scale plant continually increases performance.

"Ongoing enhancements at our Kunitomi plant have enabled us to surpass production targets ahead of time," said Hiroshi Yoshida, Vice President, Manufacturing at Solar Frontier.

"A significant proportion of our production output is now over 150W. We constantly advance our production process and expect continuing improvements in module performance to ensure we always provide our customers with the most competitive products."

"We have seen keen interest from customers around the world in our 150W offering, which combines higher power output with long-term durability and a high aesthetic grade," said Atsuhiko Hirano, Solar Frontier's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Power Generation Projects. "Customers can rely on us to further enhance our product lineup to meet their needs in the utility, commercial and residential market segments."

Solar Frontier's SF130-150 module series already offer among the highest conversion efficiencies of mass-produced thin-film modules, up to 12.2%, while also coming in larger substrate sizes. Moreover, the "light soaking effect," unique to CIS technology, provides higher output than initially specified within days of the modules entering service.

Solar Frontier officially opened the Kunitomi plant - its third production facility in Miyazaki, Japan - in April this year, giving the company approximately 1GW of annual production capacity to meet worldwide demand for a new standard in affordable solar panel performance.

"In the long term, fundamental energy economics point to the rise of thin-film, led by CIS," said Shigeaki Kameda, CEO of Solar Frontier.

"It simply requires far less energy to produce a thin-film module per watt of capacity, and the amount of energy you require to produce anything is a key arbiter of your economic viability. With CIS extending its efficiency lead among thin-film technologies at 150W and climbing, we have confirmed the commitment we made to this technology almost twenty years ago."

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