{"id":26037,"date":"2023-03-27T17:24:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/?p=26037"},"modified":"2023-03-27T17:24:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:24:20","slug":"which-type-of-solar-panel-works-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.victronenergy.com\/blog\/2023\/03\/27\/which-type-of-solar-panel-works-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Which type of Solar Panel works best?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago we set up a comparison test to evaluate the solar harvest from four different types of panels.<\/p>\n

The panels all face south. We’ve now added two more solar arrays to the comparison test to evaluate the harvest from East and West facing panels, in otherwise identical circumstances.<\/p>\n

The long-term test is taking place in the European country, Romania.<\/p>\n

You can view the live and accumulated harvest test results at any time by visiting the Victron Energy homepage<\/a>, and clicking on ‘Field Test: PV Modules<\/em>‘ at the top left of the page in the menu bar.<\/p>\n

Four panel-types<\/h4>\n

The original South-facing comparison test includes Mono; Split-Cell; Poly; and Perc panels.<\/p>\n

The newly-added east and west facing arrays are Perc<\/em> panels.<\/p>\n

For this new comparison test all accumulated values have now been reset – but the three-year test results have been saved for your information, and can be found bottom-right on the field test page.<\/p>\n

Results<\/h4>\n

It’s interesting to note that the best performing panels in our test were Split-cell at 9511kWh over three years …but all four panel types ended the test with just 5% variation in results.<\/p>\n

Taking the Poly Panel result as our base (total = 9113kWh) and calling that 100% – the panels performed like this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Poly = 100%<\/li>\n
  • Mono = 100.5%<\/li>\n
  • Perc = 104%<\/li>\n
  • Split-Cell = 104.4%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Video<\/h4>\n

    We’ve made a short video summarising the new test parameters:<\/p>\n\n\n