After reading all of the related posts I could find, I'm still fairly confused by the current solar power per dollar situation. I'm shopping for low wattage panels, and was initially horrified to see that 10W panels often are advertised for $100. Seeing that people pay $10 per watt really freaked me out: I only need a couple watts, but I certainly didn't want to pay $20 for such a tiny power supply.
Then I started looking at bulk pricing for small broken cells. The price dropped to $1.60 per watt by some advertisements. But surely there was a catch, probably these weren't too useful...
Then I started looking at small panels sold at siliconsolar.com. Their small panels finally made me breathe a sigh of relief: 1.2W panels at $2.88/W, and 2.3W panels at $3.70/W.
By now I was noticing a trend: The more wattage you want, the more solar panels seem to cost! This seemed rediculous to me by comparison with any other market. I don't see why there would be dis-economies of scale in solar panel production. In fact, I'm sure I'm just missing something. But I can't figure out what.
I was again stumped by this comment from an apparent expert at otherpower.com: "The best current deal on new 50 watt solar panels is about $4.25 a watt--$212 for a 50 watt panel, in quantity." How is it possible that I am finding much better value in relatively tiny, small-quantity pricing?
Can someone explain all this to me? Is there something wrong with these smaller panels? Or is it a question of false advertising? I know that one can generally expect only 80% of the rated output, but unless the percentage is much lower on some of these panels I'm seeing, then the pricing doesn't make sense.
