A New York Times article has stirred up fears of a looming avalanche of solar panel failures.
The article says the global demand for cheap panels and cut-throat competition has seen cost cutting occur in the form of use of sub-standard or untested materials in the construction of modules; even among some of the better known brands. Cutting corners on quality is resulting in poor performance and very early failure in some cases.
While primarily focusing on solar panels made in China; towards the end of the article is also a significant example of a non-Chinese manufacturer that has set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to cover the costs of replacing defective modules it produced in 2008 and 2009. The article’s lead-in example was a system also constructed with USA made panels.
The “made in China” bias aside, the article raises an important issue – that the origins of panels involved in some of the failures are being covered up through confidentiality agreements.
There is no doubt that huge numbers of shoddy panels have come out of China (and elsewhere) – but as we mentioned recently, Chinese solar done right can be as good as any.
Regardless of the manufacturer’s country of origin, companies importing panels must research carefully and perform their own testing in order to avoid poor quality products. With transparency a potential issue, this is made more difficult and means greater effort is involved. Consumers also need to do their own due diligence and research the brands of panels they are considering purchasing.
According to Australian solar provider Energy Matters -which has been selling solar equipment since 2005 – combined with sister company Apollo Energy; the two have supplied over 300,000 solar panels for residential and commercial installations throughout Australia. Energy Matters says the companies have seen an approximate failure rate of just 0.01% on panels they have imported so far – which works out to be just 30 out of 300,000 modules the companies have sold.
