GCL-Poly Suzhou Energy solar panels reviews

China's GCL started producing silicon for solar cells decades ago, followed by solar panel manufacturing. And it wasted no time in making its presence felt.

Contact Details

Address: 28 Xinqing Road, Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiansu Province
Phone: +86 0512 6983 2999
Email: [email protected]
Website

Company Info

GCL Group, or to give it its full name, Golden Concord Holdings Limited, is a massive Chinese corporation founded in 1990 that has around AUD $48 billion worth of assets worldwide. Its portfolio includes, but isn't limited to, wind and solar power, energy storage and integrated circuits.

Polysilicon production has played a big role in the company's success; but GCL wasn't content to merely supply silicon to other companies. Their expansion into panel manufacture occurred at phenomenal speed and in the first half of 2016 they became the 6th largest panel manufacturer in the world. Today, they remain in many annual top ten lists for module shipments and are totally vertically integrated - from materials and manufacturing to application.

In order to facilitate developing solar panel manufacturing capacity, GCL created GCL System Integration Technology Co.

GCL Solar Panels In Australia

GCL solar panels such as the GCL-P6 range were initially available in Australia for a few years, and quite a few were sold here in the mid-to-late 2010's. But in December 2018, Australia's Clean Energy Council announced that all GCL solar panels would be de-listed from its Approved Products List. This was due to the presence of components detected in testing that were outside the scope of the modules' certificate. A CEC listing is required at the time of installation in order for a system to be eligible for Australia's major solar subsidy. 

Early in 2019, some panels were re-listed.

Fast forward to today, and there are GCL solar panels suitable for residential installations that are currently CEC-listed; from the GCL-NT10R/54BGDF series. These are 435W - 455W bifacial dual glass modules offering a maximum conversion efficiency of 22.8% and a temperature coefficient of Pmax of -0.29/°C. These panels measure 1762 x 1134 x 30 mm and weigh 21.5 kg.

Warranty Information

GCL's older panels (prior to de-listing) had a standard 10 year product warranty and either a 25 or 30 year performance warranty. 

GCL did not and does not have an Australian office, but they did have an Australian partner, One Stop Warehouse. Their head office is in Woodridge in Brisbane. As the importer of GCL panels, they would be considered the manufacturer under Australian Consumer Law for the panels it imported.

The newer panels have a 12-year product warranty and 30-year linear performance warranty. It's not clear who the importer is these days - but your first point of contact for warranty issues would be the company that installed them.