Which solar panels would the top installers in Australia put on their homes?

Since I started writing about solar energy in 2009, one of the most common questions put to me is:

“Finn, what are the best solar panels?”

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The Australian Energy Council publishes a report on solar every quarter.  I’ve just read through the latest one. There are only 11 pages of text and graphics, so it’s not too much of an effort if you want to read the whole thing yourself here. 

But since we live a world where everyone is as busy as bees — except for people stuck at home in Melbourne — I’ll make use of my surplus of serenity by summarizing the report. [Read more…]

Recently we’ve had a number of calls from Australians who believe Leapton panels are made in Japan. Just to be clear: Leapton solar panels are made in China.

Update August 12, 2022. There has been some confusion regarding Leapton’s Australian presence, support and warranty services. Find out what’s happening here; including new support and warranty contact information.

Update 9th of March 2021: Leapton Solar recently opened an office in Australia and their phone number is 1800 717 636.  They told me they can handle warranty claims for all Leapton panels in Australia.  (If you you need to make a warranty claim first get in touch with your installer.  But if they’re no longer around you can contact Leapton directly.)

This article is about Leapton Solar panels.  Because this company is headquartered in Japan I’d like to give them a big…

Konnichiwa!

But since they’re actually made in China, perhaps that should be…

Ni Hao!

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LeTID: Limited in new PERC panels from reputable manufacturers and probably not a disaster for old ones.

Fourteen months ago I wrote about a type of solar panel degradation called LeTID.  This is short for Light and elevated Temperature Induced Deterioration.  It’s also Norwegian for “laugh time” which is what I think they called the Joker movie over there. [Read more…]

Astronergy, Canadian, Longi, & REC Do Well but PID Still A Problem

PV Evolution Labs, or PVEL for short, has published their 2020 PV Module Reliability Scorecard.  This annual report reveals the Top Performers from their latest round of solar panel testing.  The information given is limited.  We’re only told which panels suffered little deterioration from testing. PVEL do not reveal which performed poorly.  They do not even reveal all the panels that were tested.  But it’s still useful to know which did well.

If you buy a solar panel that was a Top Performer in all four tests you can be confident it’s going to last for decades. [Read more…]

Have solar panel optimiser manufacturers been too optimistic in their performance claims? A Danish study says optimisers can be the opposite of optimal.

Solar systems hate shade.  They really do.  Sometimes they talk to me in my dreams and it’s always their number one complaint, right after being pooped on by birds.  But these two problems are related — they hate bird poop because it shades their solar cells. [Read more…]

Under 10 degrees tilt? Try groovy solar panels made by Winaico (and others).

It’s really bucketing down here in Queensland right now.  I’m relieved because until this evening there was a remote but real possibility of everything going all orange and wavy and really hot.  I have friends coming over from Taiwan and I’d be most dreadfully embarrassed if all we had to offer them was a fine selection of ashes. [Read more…]

HT-SAAE: not a bunch of random letters, but a Chinese government owned company that has manufactured panels for use in Australia, space and other weird places.

I have two pieces of good news about HT-SAAE solar panels I’m just dying to tell you.  They are:

1. No one’s going to get mad if you call them HT panels for short.
2. The product warranty for panels sold in Australia has increased from 10 to 12 years.

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UPDATE: January 3, 2022. This blog post is a couple of years old. The product warranty on HT-SAAE solar panels has since been boosted again a couple of times, most recently to 25 years. The latest warranty document (as at January 3, 2022) can be found here.
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Good news, friends!  I’ve discovered a new solar panel manufacturer site full of bizarre English!  It is brilliant!  I haven’t been this happy since since the days when Risen Energy boasted about having a blue ocean strategy instead of a red ocean where the fish keep biting each other. [Read more…]

Hyundai have increased the product warranty of their solar panels from 12 to 25 years!  O frabjous dai! Hyun! Hyai!

I have great news for anyone who wants a 25 year product warranty on their solar panels but doesn’t want to pay big bucks to get it.  On the first of this month Hyundai Energy Solutions increased their product warranty in Australia from 12 to 25 years.¹

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