“South Korea’s leading new generation solar cells are starting to lag behind China and Saudi Arabia.” South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo reported on the 20th that South Korea has been a technological leader in the field of new generation solar cells for a long time. But now, China and Saudi Arabia, as "latecomers", have entered this field at an alarming rate in just one or two years. If South Korea continues this development trend, it will soon lose its technological leadership.

According to reports, the new generation of solar cells is a future technology designed to overcome the limitations of existing silicon solar cells. Although South Korea was not the first country to enter the field of new-generation solar cells, the Korea Institute of Chemical Technology discovered the best manufacturing method in 2014, allowing South Korea to start setting new records in the field of solar cells.


The picture shows a new generation of solar cells developed by South Korea's Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST)

According to reports, China and Saudi Arabia have not previously been involved in the field of new generation solar cells. However, what is shocking is that the Chinese company Longi Green Energy disclosed the tandem solar cell technology it developed for the first time in May last year (2023), and in November set a record for the highest efficiency of the world's crystalline silicon-perovskite tandem cells (a new generation of solar cells). After certification, the efficiency of the crystalline silicon-perovskite stacked cell independently developed by Longi Green Energy reached 33.9%. "Dong-A Ilbo" stated that 2023 will be a year of major changes in the field of new generation solar cells.

In addition, Saudi Arabia has also begun to significantly increase the scale of solar power generation by virtue of its large amount of remaining land (desert) and its advantages suitable for solar power generation.

According to the report, in this regard, Seok Sang-il (transliteration), a Korean professor in the field of new-generation solar cells, said, "Now that the atmosphere has changed, it is difficult to say that South Korea is in the leading position in new-generation solar cell technology." "I am worried that South Korea will lose to other countries in what it is good at." Shi Xiangyi said that if we don’t focus on cooperation now, it will be very difficult to catch up because technology is developing very fast. Because Chinese companies broke the highest record in just one year.