China's patent applications for solar cells rank first in the world

China has filed 126,400 global patent applications for solar cells, ranking the first in the world, according to data released by the country's National Intellectual Property Administration recently.

In recent years, the average annual growth rate of patent applications in the country's photovoltaic industry has reached 23.1 percent.

Chinese companies have set world records in solar cell's photoelectric conversion efficiency 56 times, according to Wang Shijiang, secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.

Among them, LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd., headquartered in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, set a new world record for the efficiency of crystalline silicon heterojunction back-contact (HBC) solar cells at 27.09 percent, certified by the Institute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin in Germany in December 2023. 

Since 2012, China's photoelectric conversion efficiency for mass-produced solar cells has increased by more than 60 percent, while the costs have reduced by half. In many areas in China, it only costs 0.1 yuan ( .014) to generate one kilowatt hour of electricity.

Some Chinese companies have combined solar cells with other functions thanks to innovative technologies, expanding the solar photovoltaic market. For example, some firms integrate solar photovoltaic cells into glass curtain walls, and some combine photovoltaic power generation with electric skylights installed on car roofs to supply power to the vehicles. Some even pair it with modern agricultural development to raise sheep and fish, as well as to control sand.