IKO’s ABC Gen 3 Infinite Series marks a turning point for high-efficiency solar in Australia. In this interview, Renew Economy speaks with Thomas Bywater, Head of AIKO ANZ, about the world’s first 500 W module under 2 m² and how AIKO has solved the Back Contact scalability problem that held the architecture back for nearly five decades.
Back Contact (BC) technology has been recognised as one of the most advanced solar cell architectures since the 1970s, but was historically limited to niche, high-end products due to manufacturing complexity and cost. AIKO has changed that. Through deep R&D and patented process innovation, AIKO has made BC mass-producible at gigawatt scale, paving the way for BC/xBC to become the industry’s mainstream pathway for efficiency gains this decade.
