Heraeus Photovoltaics, a leading supplier of metallization solutions in the PV industry, and JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd, a global leader in the solar industry, announced they will jointly develop new-generation super PV Cells to increase cell efficiency and lower costs.

The two companies signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement on Monday to explore energy markets related to the Belt and Road Initiative in China.

"Heraeus Photovoltaics has provided great support to JinkoSolar's growth over the past two years, bringing us to the leading position with a global PV modules shipment of 6.7 gigawatts (GW) in 2016," said Chen Kangping, CEO of JinkoSolar.

The agreement is in line with Heraeus' efforts to seek innovation and support across the PV production value chain. Andreas Liebheit, president of Heraeus Photovoltaics, said this is the third time the two companies have signed a strategic partnership, which set a new benchmark of successful cooperation between upstream and downstream companies in the ever-challenging PV industry.

"We believe that with closer cooperation between the two leading companies, PV is expected to become the most economical and widely used energy form in the near future," Liebheit said.

Since August 2015, JinkoSolar has been exclusively using front-side silver pastes from Heraeus Photovoltaics, while providing strong support for Heraeus Photovoltaics in product innovation. During this partnership, Heraeus launched two new-generation strategic pastes in 2016, and offered tailor-made products for JinkoSolar. As a result, JinkoSolar has successfully improved the efficiency of its PV cells by more than 0.3 percent and reduced the production cost of the cells by 15 percent per watt.

Heraeus Photovoltaics will accelerate the update of its silver paste products so customers can improve cell efficiency by 0.2 percent every year. Heraeus will work with JinkoSolar's new R&D efforts in efficient black silicon cells and n-type cells are expected to further increase cell efficiency.

Another key element of the agreement will be to collaboratively support the Belt and Road Initiative.

"The new energy industry is one of the key areas of cooperation in the Belt and Road Initiative. With increased competitiveness, new energy companies in China, including PV companies, have spared no efforts to explore overseas markets and expedite their global operations. We are very honored to receive such strong support from Heraeus Photovoltaics as our global partner throughout this process," Chen said.