Experience with Thin film panels

[powerbuoy]

Some posts have dealed with thin film panels, prices etc. Some people shared here and there concerns about their performance. Ghurd had mentioned some problems with older panels in a prevous post. Unfortunately, that subject came up at the very end and was probably not read by many.

Nowadays, it seems to be that there is a fresh supply of thin film panels on the market, but not much data/experience.

I am asking anybody who has bought/installed thin-films to share his/her experience with us. I trust that earlier designs had some problems which might have been ironed out by now. Panels that emerged after 2005 (which can be bought today) are of interest.

Thanks,

Powerbuoy

[DamonHD]

My current new UniSolar ES-62 (62W, 15V nominal) panel is working fine so far as I can tell.  Only a month or so in my hands.

Rgds

Damon

[strider3700]

I bought my panels in the spring of 2006.  3X15 watts. They worked ok last summer and I got 2.5 amps into a 12V battery most of the summer.  For the winter I packed them up and put them inside since I get no sun anyways.  This summer I put them back out and the best I see is 1.5 amps. I've checked every connection and tested each individually.  They all are putting out about .5 amps at this point.  

I still have great hopes for solar and think non thin film panels may work out but at this point I wish I had spent the money on magnets instead.

[DamonHD]

Make and part-number of panel?  There may be huge variation between manufacturers and parts.

[dbcollen]

I have 2 KW implemented of a 3 Kw array of First Solar FS-50 panels, they have been in use for 2 years. In the first year they produced far in excess of their rating.

When first installed I generally saw about 2.25 Kw, with the highwatts being 2687 logged by the MX60, this year I am lucky to see 1.4 Kw, which is only 70% of their rated output. I hope they don't degrade much more. First Solar will not stand behind the power output warranty because they don't sell them in the USA and I was not the original purchaser, however I was the first to implement them. They are CdTE thin film (Cadmium Telluride) so I don't know how their degredation compares to amorphous Si. They are only about 7% efficient light to wire to start, but they are to about 6% now.

Dustin B. Collen

Mad River Wind and Hydro

[dbcollen]

Sorry about the big pictures, I thought they were smaller.

Dustin

[strider3700]

here's a link to where I bought them from although their sale price was considerably better at that time.

http://tinyurl.com/2akq5f

I'll have to see if they have any marking other then the "motomaster elminator" on them.  Almost everything sold by canadian tire gets rebranded to "motomaster"so I'm not sure what the original manufacturer was

[powerbuoy]

Hmmm ...based on the number of replies I have to assume that there have been not many sales at all ...

[TAH]

I have sixty EPV 40 watt panels up now. They have been in used for 18 months now with no output drop. I will adding another 30 when I get time to put them up. I am very happy with the "inferior" thin film. The first picture is during a snowstorm last winter. With about 6 inches of snow on them and complete overcast I was still getting over 100 watts.

[Bruce S]

impressive!! VERY impressive

[powerbuoy]

Nice nice ... what are they going for money wise?

[TAH]

If you buy a case they are under $3 per watt. 32 panels per crate. I bought three so far so I'll have 96 of them up at some point. Average has been .16 KWH per panel per day with fixed mounts.  

[powerbuoy]

So you're shooting for 4KW ... nice. Where will you put the rest? Roof space seems to be tight.

PB

[TAH]

Actually that roof is only 1/3 covered now.

[craig110]

I installed 1200 watts of Kaneka 60w panels a year ago and have been quite pleased so far.  Initially, as warned about in the product specs, they produced 10-20% more than their rated power but after a few months they seem to have settled down to the rated power.