Panasonic on January 11th, 2017 announced it will count 20 years of manufacturing the high efficiency original photovoltaic module HIT this year.

Since debuting their patented, high-efficiency photovoltaic module in 1997, Panasonic have produced over 18 million of these modules, providing clean, affordable energy to consumers, businesses and institutions around the world.

The landmark achievement cements Panasonic’s unique heterojunction technology as one of the cornerstones of high efficiency innovation in the global solar market, the company emphasizes. The pioneering heterojunction solar cells use a combination of monocrystalline and amorphous solar technologies.

“Panasonic is very proud to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of producing Photovoltaic Module HIT,” stated Kazuhiro Yoshida, Director of Panasonic Solar Systems Business Unit. “When we began manufacturing this patented technology our vision was to create a better world and help accelerate the world’s much-needed adoption of clean energy. We now feel more and more responsible for this original vision even after 20 years and will do our best possible efforts to go beyond the technological boundaries of photovoltaic energy conversion efficiency.”

HIT has broken various solar efficiency world records

Across twenty years of production, HIT has broken various solar efficiency world records: In 2014, Panasonic’s original heterojunction cell became the first crystalline based solar cell to break the 25% efficiency barrier for practical sized cells, paving the way for greater levels of solar energy generation. The most recent record breaking was the achievement of 23.8% module efficiency in R&D last March, which was the world’s highest module conversion efficiency at the time of announcement.

Panasonic’s current HIT module portfolio features various panel sizes geared to provide homeowners with greater choice and flexibility to extract the maximum amount of power from their roofs.