Best Make/Price/Supplier of semi-flexible solar panels

demonboy

demonboy

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 Oct 2004
Messages
2,237
Location
Indonesia
www.youtube.com
Hi,

I'm after semi-flexible solar panels and am looking for advice on make, price and supplier.

From my basic research I've come up with Solara from Barden, but if anyone can offer a better solution/price/supplier I would be very interested in finding out about it.

Thanks in advance.
 
Have you 'ad a butchers on E bay? But their are other suppliers, couldn't you get some from the states? No VAT to pay on them in Turkey, much cheaper over there.
 
Probably more expensive here in Turkey where the tax system is geared to high taxes on manufactured and imported goods and on fuel, partly because there is not a very effective system for collecting personal taxation.
 
Unless the technology has improved,2 disadvantages still exist with semiflexible panels:
1 They produce less output than a thin rigid panel of comparable area-which in turn produces less than a 'thick'panel
2.When in partial shade -the shadow of lifeline will suffice-they stop working completely. Better quality (rigid)panels can circumvent this irritation.
 
Importing your own electronic goods, especially big items like solar panels, is a complete no-no in Turkey. Horror stories abound of yachties having to pay in import tax the same amount again as the cost of the item, and they're the ones who successfully made it through customs. Only way to do it is to pack it in your luggage and hope you don't get stopped. Am looking to get some friends to bring panels over in October and semi-flexible are much easier to pack.

I didn't really want a discussion on semi-flexible vs. rigid, but I have taken your points on board (see what I did there?). We're thinking of a combination of semi-flexible and rigid......we're trying to avoid building one of those 'go-faster' spoilers at the back of the boat you see.
 
so you think rolled up, not very tightly, solar panels are not going to be looked at, at customs?? Cant you source rigid ones there, or sail to greece and buy (EU subsidised) ones there, tie them to the cabin roof and sail back, pretending you've always had them? You have to renew your visa's anyway?? Lateral thinking man!
 
AND if you compare like-for-like the semi's actually produce more power:

Compare the semi flexible SM120M HERE

with the closest-in-size rigid SM100S HERE

Does anyone know of a comparisons published between semis and regids?
 
Cant you source rigid ones there, or sail to greece and buy (EU subsidised) ones there, tie them to the cabin roof and sail back, pretending you've always had them? You have to renew your visa's anyway?? Lateral thinking man!
Click to expand...

Nice idea, but:

1) I'm not after rigid solar panels
2) I can't source semis here
3) For certain reasons I can't enter Greece right now
4) Semis are easy to stow in a suitcase
 
I got a Uni-Solar 10W semi-flexible solar panel from Bardon several years ago. No problems at all and it definitely does not cut off completely in shadow although output is reduced of course.
 
I bought Uni-Solar too and have been pleased with it - though switched to rigid in the end as I wanted more power.

Got mine from selectsolar.co.uk who were very helpful. I thought the shadow thing was more to do with the technology than thin/thick etc. Unisolar say "Triple-junction´ technology and bypass diodes, these panels perform especially well under overcast conditions and are shadow tolerant." Not that you get too much shadow in the Med of course, but it can be an issue depending on the siting. On my fixed panels I generally reckon 10% occlusion is 90% reduction so I tend to favour more smaller panels than large ones to make sure some are always in full sun...
 
[ QUOTE ]
Importing your own electronic goods, especially big items like solar panels, is a complete no-no in Turkey. Horror stories abound of yachties having to pay in import tax the same amount again as the cost of the item, and they're the ones who successfully made it through customs. Only way to do it is to pack it in your luggage and hope you don't get stopped. Am looking to get some friends to bring panels over in October and semi-flexible are much easier to pack.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the statement above is completely false.
My understanding of importing into Turkey is the following .....
Foreign yacht-owners can import duty-free spare parts and equipment for use their yachts under customs authority control. These spare parts and equipment will be recorded in the inventory of the yacht. Whilst your yacht is in Turkey, if due to any reason (i.e. repairs, etc.) a change occurs in the inventory of the yacht, you will be required to have the necessary changes logged through the relevant Customs officials on your Yacht Registration Form.

Could anyone comment on who is correct here??
thanks John
 
[ QUOTE ]
AND if you compare like-for-like the semi's actually produce more power:

Compare the semi flexible SM120M <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Keith%20Turbo/Desktop/solara.htm" target="_blank">HERE</a>

with the closest-in-size rigid SM100S HERE

Does anyone know of a comparisons published between semis and regids?

[/ QUOTE ]

PBO October 2005 had a good article on solar panels. Essentially the "halyard shadow" effect, which can drastically reduce output, applies to mono and polycrystalline panels but not to thin film triple junction. Just one cell in shadow can cause the effect. Mono- are rigid, poly- are slightly flexible whilst thin film tr.j. are very flexible. No doubt the models available have changed after 2 years but I expect that the principles have remained the same.
 
I have (permanently) installed a couple of solara semi-flexible panels on my deck and I didn't notice any of these disadvantages.

Comparing amperage/area to solid panels I found small (if any) difference. BTW the best performing rigid panels seem to be the Kyocera ones, and I'm planning to install some in the future. OTOH really flexible ones have very poor performance.

Very small shadow doesn't seem to bother them significantly. Even when the forestay furling creates a big shadow that covers almost 50% of its area the panel does not completely stop producing. It still gives some 30-40% of its output. Maybe it's the orientation of the shadow line. It's always from top to bottom and never from side to side.

All on all I'm satisfied of the panels.

A word of caution: After a year I discovered a significant loss of power in one of the panels. After thorough investigation I found a temperature rise in part of its area and that cooling this part restored the output. The shop where I bought them replaced it promptly although they claimed that it was the first time they had a problem. What I suggest is: monitor their behaviour as often as you can.
 
Barden no longer supply Uni-Solar and one of their guys told me that you may be able to get one in the US or on Ebay. The problem is a shortage of solar cells so that the manufacturers are concentrating on the bigger units with higher profit margins. Barden do sell a foldable unit from Sunforce (25W £299) or there is Unipac, which is said to fold up to a book size. Hope that helps
 
[ QUOTE ]
I think the statement above is completely false.

[/ QUOTE ]

It sounds like you just copied and pasted that from some regulations website. Have you had first-hand experience with shipping your gear into Turkey and was it easy?

Forget what you read or what is supposed to be the 'the law'. I have been travelling backwards and forwards between UK and Turkey, and I know a lot of others who do the same. I also know plenty of ex-pats who have moved camp here and travek between the two countries, so I am speaking from first hand experience:

Getting electronic items through customs is a nightmare. The manager of our boat yard would consistently tell her clients NOT to try and get items delivered through customs. She said her clients would frequently ignore her advice and end up either never receiving the items or having to pay an import duty.

We looked into a number of ways of getting our gear over and spoke to people in both countries. Almost all the shipping companies told us of the holding problems at customs in Turkey. Quite a few of them suggested shipping to Kos in Greece and sailing over to pick the gear up in our own boat and pretending we'd always had the gear in the boat (a la Englander's advice, above).

Our boat is now full of all our electronic gear, including many new items like SSB radio, Navtex, stereo, speakers etc etc. Every single item was taken in the hold in our own suitcases far exceeding our baggage allowance. Sometimes we were charged and sometimes we got away with it. The upshot of it was that what we spent in excess charges was far less than what customs would charge for holding our gear or for shipping costs.
 
Funnily enough I just got off the phone to Barden and was discussing shipping to Turkey. In a nut shell they pretty much said take the panels through as hand-luggage. The excess would be far cheaper than the cost of the additional paper-work required to ship them via customs.

Anyway, this has nothing to do with solar panels!

Am interested in Kyocera panels. I've just been talking to the Turkish distributor of these and they look pretty good. They also come with a 10yr manufacturer's warranty, which Solara don't (2 years).
 
I have Solara semi-rigid fitted to my boat (and also the previous boat) and am very happy with them but they are a tad expensive, but have them fiited on the curved coach-house and they are only 2mm above the deck level.
Have a look at the www.jgtech.com web site; JG has some good prices for Kyocera panels and I'll be buying a couple soon to augment the 60 watts that I already have; but these will be mounted on top of the Bimini.

Alan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top