Thin Film Solar Panels

[Harold in CR]

This is some very good advice on Thin Film technology.

This guy has a less than ideal site, and, gets lots of watts,from diffused light angles of the sun, in relation to his panels.

If I lived close enough to pick up the panels, I would definitely go this system.

here

 

[Nehmo]

... this system. here

Roughly, 1/100 of a m^2 weighing 166g is a watt. Priced in 50 panel quantities at $1/watt. So a 500 watt e-bike would need 83kg of 5m^2. But we wouldn’t cut the panels, and they are 600mm x 1200mm at 12kg making 72 watts each. In other words, the trailer holding 7 panels would be (in dumb American units) 2’ x 28’ at 185 lbs. + frame, wheels, electronics weight. It would work.

 

[Harold in CR]

Only thing I don't like, for MY needs, is, they are 66v output. They are designed mostly for grid interface.

I was impressed with the output in cloudy days without tracking. Overall average he recorded, was better than normal cell production.

He even got a little output with them covered with snow.

Right now, as I type this, we are surrounded with clouds. Literally. I can't see 100 feet from the house.

 

[dogman dan]

I keep waiting for thin film solar to be priced like the promise made in Who killed the electric car.

supposedly really cheap to produce, yet when thin film panels designed into shingles or for rolling out on R panel roofing hit the market, they were priced like silicon panels. Great, cheap to produce, yet sold for what they could squeeze our nuts for. Reminded me of early gore tex prices.

Hopefully the price of thin film solar is finally dropping. One problem remains, it takes twice as much surface area. So if your roof space is limited, you might still prefer silicon panels.

 

[mettleramiel]

One problem with thin film panels that either he doesn't know about or isn't talking about is that the sun actually deteriorates them. When I was starting out with solar I bought a few used thin film panels for cheap and I bought some new ones too. I could clearly see the difference in output. The ones that were about 7 years old were putting out about 50% capacity most of the time, however, another couple that were only about 5 years old but were used more (you could tell by the sun bleaching on the plastic frame) I would get lucky if I got 40% of their rating. I still like to buy them when I find them cheap enough, but never for more than 50 cents a watt because it is nice to get some power out of low light conditions, mixing the 2 types of panels is great to me.

 

[dogman dan]

You get some degradation of output over time with silicon too, but not that bad. Another reason they should be a lot cheaper.