Trina Scores “Eastern Oscar” For Vertex S+ Solar Panels

Trinasolar’s Vertex S+ solar panels, which are available in Australia, have picked up another major design award to add to the company’s trophy cabinet – this one in Japan.

Founded in 1957, the Good Design Award (G Mark) describes good design as:

“It is not just the beauty of an object, but the ability to make people, society, and the future more well-off.”

We’ve had close to 10kW of Trina Vertex S+ panels on our rooftop for the last couple of years.

While I wouldn’t go as far to say they are *beautiful* to look at, as solar panels go they are pretty good looking in my opinion. What’s beautiful is what they do – harnessing the energy of the sun and saving us money on electricity bills; and they’ve done that very well to this point.

This award isn’t the first the Vertex S+ has scooped up – the series previously scored a German Design Award and an International Design Excellence Award (USA). The company is pretty chuffed with latest recognition.

“Trinasolar is proud of this latest achievement against fierce competition,” said the company’s Head of Global Branding and Marketing, Cao Yunduan  “Our Vertex S+ series modules represent a pinnacle of aesthetic innovation and performance in the solar industry, meeting global customers’ increasing needs for solar modules that are not only efficient and highly reliable but also aesthetically pleasing.”

More On Trina’s Vertex S+

Trina continued to develop the Vertex S+ series since we had our solar panels (415-Watt modules) installed. At that point, the most powerful Vertex+ available was 425W. These days the monofacial series comes in wattages ranging from 425-460W.

Some specifications:

• N-type i-TOPCon cells
• Double glass
• Black frame
• Module conversion efficiencies ranging from 21.3% – 23%
• Dimensions: 1762 × 1134 × 30 mm
• Temperature coefficient: -0.29%/°C
• Weight: 21 kg
• 25-year product warranty
• 30-year Power Guarantee (Maximum 1% degradation in first year, maximum 0.4% thereafter – power output of 87.4% in year 30).
• Datasheet here.

While a tad larger than our panels in terms of dimensions, the latest Vertex S+ panels weigh half a kilo less.

Another attractive aspect is Vertex S+ pricing. The money we saved on springing for a high-end brand went towards getting an 8kW Fronius Primo inverter, which are rather expensive. While premium panels may have better efficiency and temperature co-efficient, on stinking hot days – and heat being the enemy of solar panels – we don’t notice an impact given inverter capacity. And having active cooling, the inverter handles the heat very well; although the fan gets a little noisy (the newer Fronius Gen24’s are quieter).

You can compare specifications and estimated pricing of 440W Vertex S+ modules with those from other brands on the SolarQuotes solar panel comparison table.

Trina gear has been quite popular in Australia, and the company has had a local presence for a long time. Trina solar panel reviews here on SQ have averaged 4.8 stars overall based on 2,385 customer ratings, and 4.9 stars based on 366 ratings in the last 12 months.

While on the topic of accolades, Trina has also consistently done well in the SolarQuotes Installers Choice Awards. This year it picked up a gold gong for the best solar panels in 2024 (best value category – for the fourth year running), bronze in the “money no object” category and silver for support.