Solar cell grading (A, B, C, D)

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With solar cells accounting for 60%+ of the solar panel manufacturing costs, solar cells are the number one component used to cut overall costs of a solar panel.

Needless to say, it’s important to ensure that a PV manufacturer isn’t cutting costs on this precious part of your PV module.

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From our experience, in the current market situation it’s extremely difficult to source grade B solar cells.

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Those cells are often used by quality PV manufacturers to run tests OR by louzy PV manufacturers to cut costs of the PV module.

The worrying question here is: where do all these grade B cells go?

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How are grade (A, B, C, D) cells classified?

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There’s a lot of confusion between different grade solar cells. Any deviation is often graded as B, however a correct classification is complicated because there are dozens of different solar cell defects that can occur.

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Below is an attempt to design a classification (A, B, C, D) of solar cells, and is a summary of a more in-depth report.

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1. Grade A solar cells

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Grade A cells are simply without any visible defects, and the electrical data are in spec.

The specifications of the cells can be measured with cell testing equipment.

The perfect grade A cell may still have a slight bend of <= 2.0mm and a tiny color deviation is permitted.

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Below is a grade A solar cell. Due to the light the color seems to deviate, but in fact, this is a flawless solar cell: