Spanish or French Solar Panels

[giacomo]

I am travelling from the UK to Mediterranean France and Spain next year. I will be fitting solar panels at some stage to help the fridge along a little. Does anyone know how the costs of solar panels compare between these countries and the UK?

I am particulary interested in the flexible panels that can be fitted onto the boom etc when at anchor and stored when underway. My intuition tells me that the warmer countries must use these a lot more than we do in the UK, but does that make them any cheaper?

Thanks,

Steve Smart

 

[davidbains]

In my experience all solar panels are expensive, although I understand
cheaper ones are available in the US. Flexible ones may be more convenient
but I think they develop less power.
IMHO on a yacht more robust panels are required, most are not designed for
installation on a yacht and can be ruined for example by dropping a winch
handle on them, ingress of water through damaged or weathered cover is
fatal.
I used to buy Solarex but have now changed to Sunware which as far as I know
are the only panels built with a non slip surface for installation on the deck of a
yacht.
However, I will be interested in replies from more mathematical subscribers!

 

[ccscott49]

They are cheaper in both portugal and spain, portugal being slightly cheaper, but I've only seen rigid panels for sale in the solar shops down there, flexibles are for "boating", so will be expensive anywhere, apart from maybe the US.

 

[James_Hunter]

Neither! The cheapest are (dare I say it) American. They can be bought cheaper in spain. Unisolar (american) manufacure the fully flexible panels you mention. They are excellent for a boat, being shadow resistant (long explanation involved) but they are expensive. You can also get Unisolar rigid panels - same shadow resitant technology but considerably cheaper. What sort of wattage do you have in mind?

<hr width=100% size=1>