Mono-crystalline silicon solar cells with a passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) configuration have attracted extensive attention from both industry and scientific communities.A record efficiency of 24.06％ on p-type silicon wafer and mass production efficiency around 22％ have been demonstrated,mainly due to its superior rear side passivation.In this work,the PERC solar cells with a p-type silicon wafer were numerically studied in terms of the surface passivation,quality of silicon wafer and metal electrodes.A rational way to achieve a 24％ mass-production efficiency was proposed.Free energy loss analyses were adopted to address the loss sources with respect to the limit efficiency of 29％,which provides a guideline for the design and manufacture of a high-efficiency PERC solar cell.