(Yicai) Nov. 3 -- Longi Green Energy Technology, a Chinese solar panel giant, has updated its world record by hiking the efficiency of its novel solar cell innovation.

The perovskite silicon tandem solar cell, independently developed by Longi, can convert up to 33.9 percent of sunlight into energy, or around 10 percent more than the common market alternatives, the Xi'an-headquartered company announced today.

Such tandem cells combine the high sunlight absorption capabilities of affordable perovskites, a family of materials nicknamed for their crystalline structure, and the longer lifetime of silicon for better performance. Traditional crystalline silicon solar cells have a theoretical upper conversion limit of 29.4 percent but most products on the market feature just 20 to 25 percent rates.

The novel product has been under development for a while. In June, Longi said the conversion rate was 33.5 percent whereas last December it had been just 29.55 percent.

Longi's record-breaking invention has been verified and certified by the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory, per Longi. When the photoelectric conversion efficiency rises by one percentage point, downstream solar power station developer customers will save over 5 percent in costs, it added.

The theoretical upper limit of perovskite silicon tandem solar cells is 43 percent, Li Zhenguo, Longi's founder and president, said, adding that the innovation could show the way to the next generation of high-efficiency products and dethrone the current mainstream option of crystalline silicon cells.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine