Are you shopping for good quality solar panels for your home, business, or factory, power station? This article will help you learn more information about solar panels in terms of their type, power, price, and quality.
1. Decide the main purpose of the PV panels
First of all, you need to determine the main application scenarios of the PV panels you need, small PV panels (PV street lights, lighting, monitoring), home PV panels, industrial PV panels or commercial PV panels.
Small and home PV panels need to be affordable and small in size. And industrial and commercial need more power, higher conversion efficiency, power generation stability higher PV panels.
2. Understand what are the main types of solar panels
1. Monocrystalline silicon solar panels
Monocrystalline silicon solar panels are made up of monocrystalline silicon solar cells and are the most popular and widely used solar panels. It is usually dark blue and all black in color. Its technology is more mature and stable, the conversion efficiency is usually higher than 20%, long lifespan, and it has occupied more than 90% of the market share of solar panels.
2. Polycrystalline silicon solar panels
Polycrystalline silicon solar panels are composed of polycrystalline silicon solar cells and are usually light blue in color. Compared with monocrystalline silicon solar panels, its production process is simpler, lower cost, conversion efficiency is 13% to 18%, often used in small solar power generation system.
3. Flexible solar panels
Flexible solar panels are made of polymer or thin film, bendable, lightweight, easy to install, plug and play. Usually black or brown in color. They are mainly used for outdoor portable power supply, RVs, curved building roofs, yachts and so on.
4. Chalcogenide solar panels
Chalcogenide solar panel is a new technology, the conversion efficiency is higher than silicon solar panels, is still in the process of research and development, upgrading. A small amount of production stage, has great prospects for development.
5. Organic solar panels
Organic solar panels are organic semiconductors made of solar cells, low production costs, lightweight, but low conversion efficiency, stability is not high, further research and technology updates are needed.
3. Choose the brand of solar panels
At present, in the world the Tier 1 solar brands are Longi, Trina, JA, Jinko, Canadian, TCL, etc. They have the latest solar panel technology, it can ensure the quality of PV modules, and 25 years or 30 years of power degradation warranty time, in most parts of the world have dealers and after-sales service centers.
4. Choose the size and power of the PV panels
The power of PV panels ranges from 10w to 700w. The higher the power, the larger the size, and the lower the average cost of consuming auxiliary materials such as bezel, glass, etc., so you can consider choosing a higher power PV module if the installation area permits.
Currently according to the size of the container, 550 watt (size 2278*1134*30/35mm) can fit more, considering the average shipping cost, it is one of the most popular solar panel.
5. Check the efficiency of PV panels
You can check the conversion efficiency of the PV panel in its datasheet. Higher conversion efficiency means more power generation for the same solar conditions.
Currently, the highest conversion efficiency of calcite PV panels is 33.9%, and the highest conversion efficiency of mono PV panels is 24.76%, which is Jinko Solar’s TOPcon technology.
6. Check the certificate
Different countries require different certificates for on grid PV panels, such as TUV, UL, CE, which are the certification requirements for PV panels in Germany, the U.S., and the European Union, respectively; ISO is an international certification standard that certifies the quality management of PV modules in production; and IEC is a certification standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
7. Estimated Costs
1. PV panel cost
The price of solar panels is currently around 0.08USD~0.21USD/watt, but the price of crystalline silicon raw materials has been fluctuating, so the price of solar panels also often has a big fluctuating change.
There are 5 major PV production bases in the world, respectively in China, the United States, Southeast Asia and India. Among them, China’s market share accounts for more than 90%, with cheap prices and advanced technology. If you want to purchase PV panels wholesale or in large quantities, you can prioritize purchasing directly from China.
2. Installation Cost
The cost of installing PV panels depends on the cost of workers in each region. If it is a small PV panel installation such as home use, you can install it by yourself if you have a little basic electrician, but if it is a large PV power generation system, you need a professional installation team.
3. Maintenance cost
solar panels installed rarely need maintenance, you can regularly clean up the accumulated ash, so that the power generation efficiency can always maintain a high state.
8. Consider the environment and conditions of the region where the PV panels are installed
1. Temperature coefficient
The general operating temperature of PV panels is -40℃~85℃. However, as the temperature changes, the open-circuit voltage of the PV panel will change, and so will the power generation efficiency. The temperature coefficient is usually between -0.2%~-0.5%. The smaller the temperature coefficient is, the more stable the performance of PV panel is.
2. Wind and snow load resistance
Currently, the IEC loading standard for PV panels is static: 5400Pa on the front side/2400Pa on the back side, and it is recommended that PV modules need to reach a dynamic loading capacity of 2000Pa in windy and snowy areas.
3. Salt spray test
In some cities, regions and islands near the sea, PV modules need to have salt spray test reports. Choose PV panels that are not easily corroded by salt spray.
4. Roof weight capacity
If it is a wooden structure or a roof with poor weight-bearing capacity, you can choose aluminum alloy PV bracket, and lighter and thinner PV panels or flexible thin-film PV panels to reduce the pressure on the roof and ensure the safety of the house.
9. Check the warranty time
Because of the different manufacturing materials and processes of PV panels, the power decay rate is also different. Ordinary solar panels have a power attenuation rate of 0.5% to 0.7% per year, and the attenuation rate is less than 20% in 25 years. There are some better PV panels with attenuation rates below 0.5% per year and below 20% in 30 years.
10. Conclusion
Different kinds of PV panels with different powers have different advantages and disadvantages and are used in different fields, so you need to consider several factors when choosing.
If you don’t know what specific PV panels to choose, please contact us for professional answers and recommendations.
