Another Flexible Solar Panel Option?

R

Rando

Explorer
I installed (i.e. glued) a 'semi flexible' 100W solar panel which I purchased on ebay (direct from China) on the roof of my pop-top land cruiser. Disappointingly, while the panel tested fine before installation, at some point during/after attaching it to the roof, the output current dropped to a quarter of spec. Clearly some of the internal wiring in the panel has been damaged. Anyway, I am now looking for a new and more reliable laminated solar panel to replace the defective one. Uni-Solar seems like a good option, but having to cut and rewire the 5m long panels seems like a good way to make them less reliable.

In my searching I found these:
http://www.xunlight.com/Documents/XR-100W-R3.pdf

The 100W version is a much more reasonable size of 1.8 x 0.9m and they appear to have good warranties. Anyone have any experience with these? They are also quite cheap for a flexible panel - $2.50/W. It is going to be a major pain to scrape the current panel off the roof and glue a new one on, so I would like to get it right!

The current (defective) panel:
photo%u002525203.JPG
 
goodtimes

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
Global Solar manufactures flexible CIGS panels in Tucson. Yes - they're made in America, so they come with all the typical pros and cons of American made consumer products. They are available with or without mastic (adhesive).

I can't give you a long term review, but mine works as expected. I've never seen a panel put out what its actually rated for - the real world conditions never match those of a laboratory. I've never seen mine (100w) put more than about 6.5 amps (@ ~14v) through the charge controller. Still not bad for a 100w panel.
 
B

boxing kangaroo

Observer
Get thread ive been looking at these for a while.. and was about to buy a china 100W think i'll hold off and see what the forum says.

Cheers
 
R

Rando

Explorer
Any idea on the pricing on the Global Solar panels? I can't seem to find an on-line retailer with pricing info.
 
overlander

overlander

Expedition Leader
I have two 20W panels from China purchased on ebay permanently mounted to my roof box. They have been reliable for me so far and working great. I get about 2-2.5 amps when sun is overhead.
 
goodtimes

goodtimes

Expedition Poseur
You'll have to call them for pricing.

They (Global Solar) sell an RV 'kit', which includes the panel(s), an edge trim kit, connectors, wiring, etc. If you don't buy the whole kit from them, I'd suggest you at least buy the connectors from them. They aren't a standard MC4 plug - they're keyed, so you'll probably end up ordering the plugs anyway, so save yourself the trouble.

I bought a bare panel - so I don't know what the full kit costs. You'll probably be in the $4/watt range. They aren't cheap - but the don't discount the advantages of the CIGS panels.
 
R

Rando

Explorer
On further research these Xunshine panels and the CIGS cells from Global Solar appear to have very low efficiency (~60W/m2) compared to poly crystalline silicon panels (~120 W/m2). This probably is not a big deal if you have a curved roof. However, as I will be mounting these to a flat substrate (my aluminium roof) it may make more sense to stick with poly cristalline silicon panels. Anyone have a lead on a thin (< 1") 80 - 100W traditional solar panel? BP solar used to sell poly cristalline silicon cells that were laminated to a rigid stainless sheet, and encapsulated without glass. Anyone seen anything like that lately?


goodtimes said:
You'll have to call them for pricing.

They (Global Solar) sell an RV 'kit', which includes the panel(s), an edge trim kit, connectors, wiring, etc. If you don't buy the whole kit from them, I'd suggest you at least buy the connectors from them. They aren't a standard MC4 plug - they're keyed, so you'll probably end up ordering the plugs anyway, so save yourself the trouble.

I bought a bare panel - so I don't know what the full kit costs. You'll probably be in the $4/watt range. They aren't cheap - but the don't discount the advantages of the CIGS panels.
Click to expand...
 
K

Kohburn

Adventurer
was going to suggest that since you are mounting to a flat surface you don't need flexible panels.
sometimes you can find the unframed solar laminates for as little as $0.50 per watt because you aren't paying for an aluminum frame on it. they still have a junction box sticking off the backside that you would have to account for but that would be less than 1". (or you could remove the frame from a panel that you wanted to use since most are 1.5-2" thick)

if you still wanted flexible - these roll up peel-stick panels might be the ticket, especially at under $1 per watt - but not sure if they have the watt/m^2 that you are looking for.

http://www.sunelec.com/unisolar-120watt-laminate-peelnstick-with-mc3-p-870.html

they appear to run at 200-1000 W/m^2 depending on conditions if i am reading the specifications correctly

http://www.sunelec.com/Specs/UniSolar/UniSolar-124-Roll-PVL.pdf
 
R

Rando

Explorer
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