(Yicai Global) April 7 -- Chinese solar module maker Akcome Optronics Science and Technology has hired Dr. Kiyama Seiichi, a pioneer of high-efficiency battery technology, as its chief technical adviser.

Kiyama will provide guidance on technical improvement and production management for Akcome’s high-efficiency battery production line, the Jiangsu province-based firm said yesterday, adding that he will also offer technical consultation for solar module production.

Akcome hopes Kiyama’s appointment will improve the production technology of its new high-efficiency solar cell products, it said.

A graduate of Osaka University, Kiyama was technical director at Panasonic Clean Energy, formerly Sanyo, and director of the company’s Solar Energy Institute.

He was the main researcher among those first to develop crystalline silicon solar cell and mass production technology and realize its industrial application in Japan. Kiyama developed the Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thinfilm (HIT or HJT), which set a world record of 25.6 percent conversion efficiency, the statement said.

HIT or HJT solar cells were first developed by Sanyo. Because of its special structure, the solar energy conversion efficiency of such batteries is significantly higher than that of mainstream products. But due to relatively expensive production equipment, the industrial application of this production process is still somewhat small.

Akcome is investing CNY5 billion (USD764 million) in east China’s Huzhou city to build an HJT battery and module production project in three phases, with total capacity reaching 6 gigawatts.

All the 2 GW HJT battery capacity in the first phase of the project will come into production by the end of this year.

Editor: Peter Thomas