Flexible solar panels are junk

[geem]

Having had two different brands of flexible solar panels over the years and been disappointed with them I will never buy them again.
I just stumbled on this on Will Prowse website.


Flexible Solar Panels? Don't Buy them!
You have been warned:
Every single flex panel on the market is garbage. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this. I have destroyed stacks of these things. The cells crack easily and take out a whole string of cells when the bus bars break. Or they have extreme degradation after a few months of summer. Even the latest "CIGS" panels that I was so excited about, are having delamination problems.

Do yourself a favor, and avoid the flex panels. None of them are good.

It seems he has a similar view.
My current set of four 180w framed solar panels cost me £120 each. They provide me all the power I need as a liveaboard running fridges and freezer and making us a tank full of hot water each day when at anchor

 

[cherod]

Having had two different brands of flexible solar panels over the years and been disappointed with them I will never buy them again.
I just stumbled on this on Will Prowse website.


Flexible Solar Panels? Don't Buy them!
You have been warned:
Every single flex panel on the market is garbage. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on this. I have destroyed stacks of these things. The cells crack easily and take out a whole string of cells when the bus bars break. Or they have extreme degradation after a few months of summer. Even the latest "CIGS" panels that I was so excited about, are having delamination problems.

Do yourself a favor, and avoid the flex panels. None of them are good.

It seems he has a similar view.
My current set of four 180w framed solar panels cost me £120 each. They provide me all the power I need as a liveaboard running fridges and freezer and making us a tank full of hot water each day when at anchor

yes, but they are heavy

 

[Blueboatman]

Yup
They always were a bit carp
You could watch the corrosion creeping across them on unattended parked boats

 

[geem]

yes, but they are heavy

Yes but they work

 

[vas]

@geem, that's exactly the conclusion we've drawn down here. Rarely any makes it to 4-5yrs and then performance is carp by that time.
Apparently the guy I buy all my solar/victron kit from claims that they last a bit longer if they are not placed in 24V systems but he's not sure why that would happen. His last two attempts on 24V mobos died within a year.
OTOH, @Hurricane over on mobo has 4 semiflex panels installed in Spain for 4-5yrs now with no issues. Mind they were expensive compared to the typical flex you get online.

I think small flex/semi-flex panels fare better on northern climates with less sun to stress the materials with daily expansion and evening cooling "shrinking" again.

V.

 

[Alfie168]

I bought the cheapest semi flexi panel I could find, just backed onto aluminium. It's done about 8 years so far. It was supposed to be a temporary "fill in" whilst I researched the market. I had to wrap the cables for UV reasons, but it's still working. It is of course unbranded Chinese "stuff", and it's only 20w max, but that's enough to keep my small leisure battery topped up. The battery has done 12 years so far. It's about the simplest system you can imagine with an elderly regulator

 

[vas]

size only can be a factor for the 20W still running. The issue is with 150W+ panels good enough to keep your fridge/lights/whatever running at 30+C ambient

 

[thinwater]

I bought the cheapest semi flexi panel I could find, just backed onto aluminium. It's done about 8 years so far. It was supposed to be a temporary "fill in" whilst I researched the market. I had to wrap the cables for UV reasons, but it's still working. It is of course unbranded Chinese "stuff", and it's only 20w max, but that's enough to keep my small leisure battery topped up. The battery has done 12 years so far. It's about the simplest system you can imagine with an elderly regulator

Same. Bought a cheap panel 8 years ago, no problems (on my F-24). I have also used rigid panels (on my PDQ).

The secret of my success is mounting the panel on a rigid surface, not a dodger, and not walking on it. They are not made for either, but they are marketed that way. They can be slightly flexed for installation, one time, but are NOT designed to be flexed, even gently, repeatedly. They cells fatigue and fracture.

I would use rigid panels when they fit. The glass and frame offer better protection. But semi-flexible panels are not so bad if installed correctly, directly to a rigid surface.

 

[dunedin]

You are welcome to your opinion. But nobody seems to have told this to our our semi flexible Photonic Universe panels. Three working fine after a lot of abuse over 6 years so far.
Meanwhile fixed panel was removed as too unwieldy (we don’t want an arch at the stern) and been languishing in the garage for 5 years.

 

[TopBanana]

My experience has been the same

 

[yotter]

We have had Photonic Universe seme flexible panels for a few years now and no problems. They are aluminum backed and mounted on plywood backing since used as roving panels to follow the sun and avoid shading. I understand that semi flexible panels should only be flexed once and continual flexing may cause cracking.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I have a cheap semi-flexible 100w panel of unknown provenance, but probably eBay (I got it very cheap from the permanent boat jumble at Titchmarsh marina chandlery) rigged like a dodger on the guard-rails next to the cockpit. It's been there for 4 years now, with no sign of deterioration. I don't expect it to last forever, but it's doing quite well! I run it through a Photonics Universe controller, and it keeps 2x110 Ah 12V batteries well charged.

 

[vas]

You are welcome to your opinion. But nobody seems to have told this to our our semi flexible Photonic Universe panels. Three working fine after a lot of abuse over 6 years so far.
Meanwhile fixed panel was removed as too unwieldy (we don’t want an arch at the stern) and been languishing in the garage for 5 years.

good, wonder if that would be your experience in the med though.

 

[geem]

In the Tropics you are lucky to get a year out of flexible panels. The UV turns them milky and or they delaminate. I don't know any Ody out here that is happy with any make of flexi panel

 

[typhoonNige]

I had Sunware flexible panels on the foredeck in the tropics for 5 years. The only failure was caused by previous crew dropping a wind turbine on one. No milkyness or delamination occurred. Output was always poor though as they got hot. The rail mounted rigid panels worked well and produced most of the power needed on board.

 

[lustyd]

It's interesting because Will Prowse is also the guy that said recently that ETFE panels have fixed all of those issues. I guess it's hard to keep the whole of the Internet up to date all the time so sometimes outdated and misleading info stays around for a while.

 

[PetiteFleur]

My Photonic Universe panels are good, etfe, mounted on deck, have kept my batteries fully charged with PU dual battery controller. In Suffolk.

 

[Neeves]

My current set of four 180w framed solar panels cost me £120 each. They provide me all the power I need as a liveaboard running fridges and freezer and making us a tank full of hot water each day when at anchor

We have a huge area of cabin roof that is ideal for the location of solar panels - one of the advantages of a multihull. If we filled the roof with rigid panels we would not have access to the boom. We could leave a space to walk on but inevitably when you want to access the boom in a hurry (45 knots, lump seas) the space would be located in the wrong place

I do agree flexible panels don't last, some delaminate, some simply corrode under the top layer (so the top layer is insufficiently robust) - but you can walk on them (for 5 - 10 years) - and then replace. Ours a fixed to a rigid base, the cabin roof and to instal have been bent, slightly. We don't run around on the cabin roof - only needing visit to tidy the sail. Treat them as an, expensive, consumable - a bit like red wine, a black sail, exhaust elbow or antifouling. Just change your thinking.

There is another problem. You start off with a matching set of flexible panels. They start to fail, Initially you live with the loss of one - then you start to replace. You cannot replace with the same panel, its gone out of fashion or the manufacturer is no more. You end up with an untidy mess of different sizes and visually appearance of panels. It all looks like a bit of a pigs breakfast.

Its at this point a WattnSea and a wind gen looks attractive

But I am interested in your final sentence - how are you making a tank full of hot water?

Do you also mean desalination and heat, or just heating and is heating: battery, convert to AC, immersion heater in tank - or has technology passed me by (again)

Thanks

Jonathan

 

[thinwater]

On my PDQ I had a mix. Rigid where they fit well, and semi-flex on a few other areas, but always with rigid support. No problems, but I'm sure the rigid panels will last longer. If I had one of a pair of semi-flex go, I would probably replace the pair, depending on age and cause.

A little milkiness of the polymer top does not reduce output much and isn't a failure. I've measured output. Transmission is reduced, but so is reflection at low angles. It can be reduce by frequent treatment with wax, but it must be a minimal buffing sort, since they don't like pressure. In part is screens some UV, and in part it increases transmision by filling pores (the wet look).

 

[Stemar]

I've seen enough flexible panels on boats that I didn't consider them on Jissel or Jazzcat. Some were still working, but most weren't.

I then mounted them on frames clear of the deck so air could circulate underneath, which didn't look as neat as flexible panels stuck to the deck, but has the added benefit that it's pretty obvious that you shouldn't walk on them