frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum ones?

rollandelliott

so I've read threads about companies that are going to make frameless panels , but honestly I've never seen one! is anyone making them yet?

Vic

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

Hi Rolland,

Lumos makes some Frameless PVs, and even has a Solar-Roofed Carport kit.:

http://www.lumossolar.com/solar-products/solar-panels/

The above site seems to ge mor glitz than info, .. . but ..

Lumos LSX series modules are frameless. Have not used or even seen them. Vic

SolaRevolution

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

Astropower used to make them '98-2001ish. Astropower LAP-425, 440, 460, 480, and LAPX-300
The dealers, shippers and installers had lots of issues with breakage. I occasionally hear of people looking to replace broken ones. They are very fragile. It doesn't take much of a hit on the edge to shatter the tempered glass.


These were called Large Area Panels and consisted of 4 framless glass modules glued on to 10' sections of unistrut. If you could get them into place unharmed they were quite nice in that grounding was easy because you did not have to worry about grounding aluminum.:cool:

-Alex

boB

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

Silicon Energy makes them here in Washington state (an offshoot of Outback Power) and they are more expensive, something
like $3.50/watt (maybe $4/watt ?)

boB


BTW, these are mono or poly-silicon and not amorphous thin film modules.

stephendv

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

All the frameless panels I know are thin film, usually amorphous silicon, either plain aSi or tandem junction aSi + crystaline (sometimes called micromorph) in a glass front and glass back module.
The best IMO are the Schott ASI modules which are tandem aSi-aSi modules that have a 30 year guarantee, AFAIK the longest in the industry.
First Solar is another big name, can't find them in less than 10kW quantities though.
Sharp do a frameless micromorph NAE module. Wholesale price is about 0.5 Euro/Watt over here.
There seems to be a bunch of low efficiency (6% or less) aSi modules that come in a 1.2m x 0.6m format that are frameless, e.g. Bangkok solar, GS-Solar, Parity Solar.

There are mounting clamps available for all, if you search for "frameless solar clamp" you'll find a few.

ggunn

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

A rep from a major module supplier (I believe it was Trina) whom I talked to at SPI told me that they would be going totally frameless within 2 years.

rollandelliott

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

so basically at this point in time there is no economic benefit going with a frameless panel. You can get framed panels for around 70 cents a watt.

it would make sense to me that going frameless would save money. guess reality and my sense of logic don't meet.

ggunn

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

rollandelliott wrote: »

so basically at this point in time there is no economic benefit going with a frameless panel. You can get framed panels for around 70 cents a watt.

it would make sense to me that going frameless would save money. guess reality and my sense of logic don't meet.

At this point it's probably a supply and demand question, but that could change.

BB.

Re: frameless solar panels, who makes them and are they cheaper than standard aluminum o

And the "losses" from damage during manufacturing/shipping/installation... The edges of tempered glass are the weak point of the solar panels. The metal frames help protect those fragile edges.

-Bill