The Daqing National PV and Energy Storage Demonstration Platform (Daqing Base) in Heilongjiang is the world’s first and China’s first “national-level” PV and energy storage demonstration platform approved by the National Energy Administration. Since its commissioning in November 2021, it has been in continuous operation for over four years. (For details, see “China’s First PV-Storage Demonstration Platform Begins Operations”)

Currently, the base has completed construction of its three phases, with over 600 demonstration test schemes planned and a total capacity exceeding 1 million kilowatts.

Over the past four years, various technological routes—including TOPCon, IBC, HJT, and PERC—and products from multiple manufacturers have been continuously validated here. Performance metrics and rankings are published annually, establishing the base as a globally renowned “testing ground for PV products”! Recently, the results of the base’s latest 2025 “demonstration test” were released. As expected, TOPCon technology products once again secured first place nationwide, using empirical data to anchor the industry’s definition of true technological advancement.

Four Years of Demonstration: TOPCon’s Sustained Leadership

The 2025 Annual Results Report of the National Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Demonstration Platform shows that across all demonstration zones in Phases I, II, and III of the Daqing Base, TOPCon modules generated the highest power output among all technology types. Specifically, data from the newly developed Phase III demonstration zone indicates that TOPCon modules generated 0.75%, 2.86%, and 5.24% more electricity than IBC, PERC, and HJT modules, respectively.

Short-term high power output alone is not sufficient to tell the whole story; stability across the entire lifecycle is the true measure of a technology’s core value!

If we extend the time frame to the full four years since the facility began operations (2022–2025), long-term tracking data from the Phase I demonstration area—which was the first to go online—reveals that:

TOPCon modules ranked first in power generation every year. Over the four-year period, their average power generation per watt was 1.22% higher than IBC, 2.10% higher than PERC, and 9.18% higher than HJT, demonstrating a comprehensive lead! These four-year demonstration results sufficiently eliminate interference factors such as climate fluctuations and annual variability, proving that in high-latitude cold temperate climate zones like Daqing, TOPCon is currently the technological product with the best power generation performance and optimal performance among all existing technical routes.

Advantage in Bifaciality: Comprehensive Capability Determines the Power Generation Ceiling

The lead in power generation is rooted in the most efficient utilization of solar resources. Since 2018, the photovoltaic industry has entered the era of bifacial power generation. With technological advancements, the contribution of rear-side power generation has grown significantly; for TOPCon products, the proportion of rear-side power generation can reach 21.6%.

The Daqing site is located on the Songnen Plain, where surface conditions vary dramatically with the seasons: during the winter snow season, rear-side irradiation accounts for approximately 30%–45%; in spring and summer, with dry grass and short vegetation, rear irradiation remains at 10%–20%. The bifaciality ratio directly determines the performance ceiling of products from different technological routes at demonstration sites.

The 2025 Annual Results Report of the National Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Demonstration Platform shows that in the Phase I demonstration area, which began operations earliest:

TOPCon modules: Bifaciality ratio remains stable within the range of 71% to 78%;

IBC modules: Bifaciality was lower, ranging from 64% to 68%;

PERC modules: Ranged from 68% to 73%;

HJT modules: Achieved the highest bifaciality at 88%, but their high degradation characteristics severely eroded the contribution of bifacial gains, resulting in overall power generation that actually fell short of TOPCon.

The report further analyzes that, compared to IBC, for every 1 percentage point increase in the proportion of rear-side irradiation, TOPCon’s power generation advantage expands by approximately 0.7%. At a time when bifacial power generation has become the mainstream design approach for power plants, TOPCon demonstrates stronger and more balanced adaptability to complex irradiation environments.

Resistance to Degradation: Time Is TOPCon’s Best Friend

When comparing power generation, it is not just the initial gap that matters, but also the endurance over a 30-year lifecycle. Even if a PV module has an initial efficiency advantage, if that advantage is eroded year by year by high degradation rates, customers will still be unable to achieve an ideal return on investment. The 2025 Annual Results Report from the National Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Demonstration Platform specifically compiled statistics on the degradation rates of products across various technological routes. Among them, the measured degradation data for modules of different technologies in the Phase III demonstration zone, accumulated through 2025, shows:

??TOPCon modules: The degradation range for demonstration products was 0.50% – 2.44%;

??PERC modules: The degradation range for the tested products was 1.84% – 4.14%;

??IBC modules: Degradation of 1.10% (the report presents only the best-performing sample);

??HJT modules: The degradation range for the tested products was 6.35% – 15.06%;

Among these, the degradation data for TOPCon products is sourced from multiple manufacturers and covers a range of performance levels, making it a universally applicable industry reference, whereas IBC data is based on a single top-performing sample. Based on this, the degradation data for high-quality TOPCon products is lower than that of IBC, the overall degradation data outperforms PERC, and it shows a significant lead over HJT.

Four years, three phases, the same result.

Using the most authentic, long-term outdoor data, the Daqing facility has conducted a comprehensive evaluation of mainstream photovoltaic technology routes. TOPCon has demonstrated performance that stands up to rigorous scrutiny across three dimensions: power generation, bifacial gain, and degradation control.