Yingli Solar solar panels reviews

Yingli Solar is a Chinese manufacturer of solar panels with an Australian office in Sydney. Their panels sold in Australia generally have a 12 year product warranty and a 25 year performance warranty.  Yingli Solar used to be the world’s largest producer of solar panels but, starting in 2013, suffered serious financial difficulties that put its future survival at stake.  Despite the challenges it faced Yingli remained in business and continued to provide warranty support.

The company is now being restructured which will get rid of it huge debt liability, so I expect they'll be around for quite a while longer. 

Yingli Panels Were Tier One

If a panel is tier one it means large financial organizations are willing to lend money to projects using them.  It's not a direct measure of panel quality but it is good evidence that a manufacturer's panels are reliable.  Yingli Solar panels used to be tier one aren't any more due to the company's financial difficulties.  As Yingli is being restructured to put it on sounder financial footing it is possible their panels will regain tier one status in the future. 

Australian Office And Support

Yingli has an Australian office in Sydney which they have kept staffed despite the company's financial woes.  As far as I am aware, they have continued to honor their warranties.  I have been told they are planning to expand the number of people in their Sydney office and sales in Australia. 

Total Production

Yingli Solar was a major producer of solar panels. While it was the largest manufacturer in 2012 and 2013 the company ran into financial trouble and by the end of 2016 had fallen to around 8th place.  In 2018 they shipped 1.7 gigawatts of panels, which was little more than half their 2014 production. 

Company History

The company's full name is Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited. It was founded in 1998 and commenced production of solar panels in 2003. It rapidly expanded and become the world’s largest manufacturer in 2012 and 2013.

Unfortunately, that didn’t turn out too well for them, as they grew too fast and took on too much debt in the face of falling panel prices.  This resulted in them reducing their number of employees from over 19,000 in 2013 to only around 7,100 in 2018.  In June 2018 they were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange due to inadequate market capitalization. 

Yingli is currently being restructured which will eliminate its debt.  At the end of 2016 this was around $3 billion.  The deal will result in its shareholders receiving nothing and losing the entirety of their investment, while leaving the company operating.    

Location

Yingli’s headquarters are in Baoding, a huge city of over 11 million, 150km south-west of Beijing. It's a dry location with even less rainfall than Adelaide.  Its also unusual as most solar panel manufacture occurs around Shanghai rather than Beijing.

I thought Yingli also had a presence in Thailand, but it instead turned out to be Thai pop sensation Yinglee.

Yingli Solar Panels

Yingli produces a wide range of solar panels.  At the time of writing in October 2020, the ones generally sold in Australia are all half cell, monosilicon, PERC panels with the following characteristics: 

• 330 watt, 120 half cells, Black Frame, 1689 x 996 x 35 mm
• 370 watt, 120 half cells, Black Frame, 1755 x 1038 x 35 mm
• 410 watt, 144 half cells, Silver Frame, 2015 x 996 x 35 mm
• 440 watt, 144 half cells, Silver Frame, 2094 x 1038 x 35 mm

In additon they also sell two bifacial panels that can make use of light falling on either side of the panel:

• Bifacial 400 watt, 144 half cells, Silver Frame, 2037 x 1005 x 30 mm
• Panda N-Type Bifacial 410 watt, 144 cells, Silver Frame, 2037 x 1005 x 30 mm

Panel Warranties

Yingli panels sold in Australia have a product warranty of 12 years and most have a 25 year performance warranty.  The 25 year performance warranty promises they will have a minimum of 80.2% or 83.1% of their original capacity by its end with the amount depending on the panel.  This is fairly standard for lower cost panels these days. 

Their bifacial panels have a longer 30 year performance warranty that promises at least 82.5% of their original capacity by its end.

Excellent Independent Testing Result

Yingli demonstrated they can make high quality and reliable panels in 2018 when one of their panels passed all four of DNV-GL's Solar Module Scorecard tests.  While this was for a panel model that's now outdated and no longer produced, it was an impressive result and shows Yingli knows how to make tough, durable panels.

Gullen Solar Farm

While Yingli panels have mostly gone on roofs in Australia, they were used for the 10 megawatt Gullen Solar Farm in NSW which was completed in 2017.  This was the first in the country to be colocated with a wind farm. 

Yingli Is Updating Its Site And Datasheets

I mentioned to Yingli Solar that some information on their site was 8 years out of date and their datasheets had cell efficiency figures prominently featured on them instead module efficiency figures.  They have told me they are in the process of updating their site and datasheets and the changes are likely to be in effect by the time you read this. 

My Recommendation

As far as I know, Yingli panels have not had any major issues with reliability and have done well in independent tests.  As they have an Australian office and the restructured company is likely to remain around to honor warranties I'd say they are probably not a bad choice for people looking for low cost panels.  While they are not among the panels we currently recommend in our Solar 101 Guide, this may change over time if we receive good feedback on them.