1. Raw Material Cost Advantage
High copper price: Copper is a typical commodity metal with significant price fluctuations, and its overall price level is far higher than that of aluminum.

Aluminum substitution: CCA replaces the costly copper core with a more economical aluminum core, while maintaining a copper outer layer to ensure solderability and electrical contact performance.

Savings range: Depending on the copper thickness ratio, CCA ribbon can be 15%–30% cheaper than pure copper ribbon. For large-scale production (e.g., 1 GW capacity), this difference translates into several million USD in annual savings.

2. Transportation and Weight Advantage
Significant density difference: The density of copper is about 8.9 g/cm³, while aluminum is only 2.7 g/cm³.

Lightweight effect: For the same size, CCA ribbon weighs considerably less, which reduces international shipping, packaging, and storage costs.

End-user benefits: Lighter modules also help reduce installation and mounting costs, improving the competitiveness of the entire PV system.

3. Manufacturing Compatibility and Process Cost Control
Excellent solderability: The copper cladding on CCA ensures good soldering performance with tin solder, requiring no major changes to existing stringing and tabbing equipment.

Process stability: With sufficient copper thickness, CCA ribbon demonstrates high compatibility with existing production lines, avoiding extra equipment investment.

Yield rate: High-quality CCA ribbon maintains consistent performance during drawing, tin-coating, and soldering processes, helping reduce defect rates.

4. Balancing Cost and Reliability
Thermal cycling stress: Aluminum has a higher thermal expansion coefficient than copper. If the copper layer is too thin, thermal cycling over many years may cause stress cracks.

Corrosion risks: If the copper cladding is uneven or exposes the aluminum core, galvanic corrosion may occur, particularly in humid or coastal environments.

Engineering solutions: By increasing copper layer thickness, improving cladding technology, and sealing ribbon edges, CCA can reliably pass IEC reliability tests such as damp heat, thermal cycling, and humidity freeze.

Practical application: Many tier-2 and tier-3 module manufacturers have already adopted CCA ribbon in mass production, successfully passing IEC 61215 / 61730 certifications, showing that when designed properly, CCA does not compromise module lifespan.

5. Economic Benefit Example
For a 500 MW module production line:

Each gigawatt of modules consumes approximately 300 tons of PV ribbon.

If CCA is used instead of pure copper, and the cost reduction is estimated at 20%, several million USD in raw material savings can be achieved annually.

For module manufacturers, this equates to a cost reduction of 0.2–0.3 US cents per watt, which is highly attractive in the extremely price-sensitive solar market.

6. Overall Conclusion
Under proper quality and design control, CCA PV ribbon can significantly reduce module manufacturing costs without compromising long-term reliability. Its core advantages include:

Lower raw material cost (partial copper replacement);

Weight reduction (more economical logistics and installation);

Process compatibility (no extra equipment investment).

Therefore, for module manufacturers focused on cost optimization while maintaining product reliability and certification compliance, CCA PV ribbon is undoubtedly a practical and competitive solution.