The world’ s largest hybrid solar-hydro power plant, with an installed capacity of 1 GW of solar panels and 3 GW of hydro- power generators, has begun producing electricity in the east- ern Tibetan Plateau. Located in Kela town, Yajiang county, Ganzi prefecture, Sichuan, the plant’s first phase is empowered by 287.4 MW of Jinkosolar’ s N-type TOPCon bifacial panels and was connected to the power grid at the end of June 2023. After the station’ s operation stabilized, a comparison study was conducted between N-type and P-type modules in the high-altitude area from July 15 to August 15 2023, in order to investigate their outdoor performance.

The study revealed a 5.52% yield gain of JinkoSolar’ s N-type TOPCon bifacial panels (570Wp) over P-type PERC bifacial panels (545Wp) in this massive project.

Situated at an altitude of 4,000 - 4,600 meters (15,000 feet) above sea level, on a mountain in Yajiang county (N29°56’ 50.75", E100°37’ 1.94"), Ganzi prefecture, Sichuan, the Kela solar-hydro power plant is the highest-altitude project of its kind in the world. It benefits from an annual average irradiation of 6434.8 MJ/m2.

Spanning a total area of 74 sq km (28.57 square miles), the plant consists of 149 solar arrays, with single-axis support and ±45 ° tracking tilt angles, as well as 163 fixed-mounted arrays with angles of 26 ° . The pitch distance between arrays is 10.5 meters. The plant utilizes 196 kW string-type inverters, with each string connecting 26 bifacial panels. The DC-AC ratio is set at 1.21 for fixed mounting arrays and 1.15 for single-axis solar arrays. Panels are positioned 1.8 meters above the ground, the lowest profile.This comparative study is based on two arrays with the same system design in the same region: one is an N-type TOPCon bifacial module array, and the other is a P-type PERC bifacial module array.

Results:
The initial data collected from July 15 to August 15 shows a 5.52% yield gain of Jinkosolar’ s N-type TOPCon bifacial panels over P-type PERC bifacial panels. This can be attributed to the unique advantages of Jinkosolar’ s N-type TOPCon panels, including high efficiency, high power output, high generation capabilities, high bifaciality (80% and above), lower temperature coefficient (-0.29%/°C), and lower degradation. The project serves as a compelling example of the investment and construction advantages of adopting N-type technology in similar projects.