Beware the wires!
This is the easiest way to tell the difference between a genuine SunPower solar panel and anything else. All the others have thin wires (you have to look carefully) on the front.
If you see wires, any wires at all, on the front of a solar panel you are considering, don’t buy it! You may have to look closely. And don’t be fooled just because a panel manufacturer brags about their “all black” panel – if you look closely, you’ll see the wires
Here’s the problem with front-mounted wires. On all brands of conventional panels, those “wires” are needed to collect the electricity from the front of the individual solar cells.
Brittle wire paste
But those dozens of “wires” aren’t really wires. They are actually just lines of metal paste which have been screen printed (like a T-shirt) and then baked on. Cheap, yes, but they limit power and cause degradation. They block light and reduce panel efficiency, so they’re made narrow and shallow. But making them small only makes them heat up, lose more efficiency, and makes them subject to corrosion from moisture and breakage from micro-cracks. Even though all solar panels have a front layer of tempered plate glass, micro-cracks occur due to rooftop temperature changes, normal wind and snow loads, and even the helpful chimney guy who didn't know you shouldn't walk on solar panels.
Wider strips of metal foil carry the electricity away. But the solder joints for that foil are also subject to breakage from temperature/ wind loads/ snow, etc.
No exposed wires . The best panels in the industry are made by SunPower and have all their wires tucked away on the back of the panel and no wires on the front.
This gives them much higher efficiency and power (up to 360 watts for a standard panel size, vs only 260 to 320 watts for a conventional panel).
The SunPower panel has all its wires on the back; in this case, these relatively thick and very low resistance copper wires fill the backside.
Redundant circuits (3 tabs on each end) feed alternating positive and negative copper wires that are thick and free-flowing. These are far more efficient at collecting electricity and sending it to your house. Micro-cracks won’t break these connections.
Only SunPower has the backside copper wire and expansion joints. This means that while cheap panels from China degrade quickly and will be lucky to last 25 years, and a so-called “premium” panel (like SolarWorld or LG) may go 30, SunPower panels are expected to still be producing excellent power at 40 years.
What a great legacy to leave your kids or family or to increase the resale value if you ever sell the house!
Need proof ?
Click this link to see a graphic video demonstration of a conventional solar cell vs the SunPower one. Others may “claim” they are the best. We are the only ones willing to prove that SunPower actually is. Contact us today for a free solar evaluation. We’ll even bring various solar cells and let you test them yourself in your own kitchen. That’s how confident we are!
SunPower. An American success story since 1985.
At Lotus Energy, we don’t sell the cheap stuff. All we sell is SunPower. In fact, we are the only Elite SunPower dealer in Upstate NY. As a result, we get pricing advantages that lower levels do not, and we pass those savings along to you. We’ve been in the solar business since 1993. If you want the best local installer with the best solar panels and equipment in the industry, we are the best solution for your needs.
Footnote: 99% of rooftop and ground-mounted solar in Upstate NY are what’s called Csi (Crystalline Silicon), either polysilicon or, better yet, monosilicon, which is black in color. All of those have wires on the front of the cells, except SunPower, which for the reasons shown above, has a far better construction with plated copper wires all on the back.
But there is another technology, called “thin film” that also has no wires on the front. Unfortunately, it is far less efficient than regular panels, and produces only about half as much as a SunPower panel. Some are used out on the western deserts and on some barn tin roofs. They are also fine for your kid’s backpack or little solar toys and accessories, but aren’t suitable for regular homes and businesses.
