Thin film expansion
stephendv
Solar Expert Posts: 1,571 ✭✭
Just finished installing and connecting up 1.6kW of Sharp NAF-121 panels. They're tandem junction "micromorph" panels, with one layer of amorphous silicon and another layer of micro-crystaline silicon giving them a 9% efficiency. So they're more efficient than plain amorphous panels, but less efficient than poly panels.
Attachment not found.
Because of the amorphous layer they're subject to the Staebler–Wronski degrading effect, so the initial rating is 140W which will then degrade to their STC rating of 125W, they come with the standard 80% over 25 year warranty and a 10 year manufacturing warranty from Sharp.
Paid 0.33 Euro/Watt for them in Germany, adding in shipping costs, they came in at about 0.43 Euro/Watt ($0.55/Watt). They're an "old" model, so got them at the price because the supplier was clearing stocks.
I have a lot of roof space, so the efficiency isn't really that much of a concern, all I really care about is Price/Watt in cloudy weather. The existing Yingli panels have done a great job of supplying enough energy during most days and we've only had to run the generator about 15 hours for the whole year. I also plan to increase the loads with more water pumping, hot water heating and perhaps some LED grow lights, so the additional PV is really for opportunity loads and to see us through cloudy days.
I'll be really pleased if we can reduce the gen runtime to 0 through good load management and of course the added capacity of these new PVs.
The mounting structure is the "singlefix" system from Schletter which uses short 45cm mouting rails screwed directly to the sheet metal roof.
Attachment not found.
It was really easy and fast to fit since it uses self-drilling screws so the whole structure can be mounted from on top of the roof without having to connect nuts and bolts underneath the beams.
There's a video of the mounting system here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJj8LGxRmxE
Attachment not found.
Because of the amorphous layer they're subject to the Staebler–Wronski degrading effect, so the initial rating is 140W which will then degrade to their STC rating of 125W, they come with the standard 80% over 25 year warranty and a 10 year manufacturing warranty from Sharp.
Paid 0.33 Euro/Watt for them in Germany, adding in shipping costs, they came in at about 0.43 Euro/Watt ($0.55/Watt). They're an "old" model, so got them at the price because the supplier was clearing stocks.
I have a lot of roof space, so the efficiency isn't really that much of a concern, all I really care about is Price/Watt in cloudy weather. The existing Yingli panels have done a great job of supplying enough energy during most days and we've only had to run the generator about 15 hours for the whole year. I also plan to increase the loads with more water pumping, hot water heating and perhaps some LED grow lights, so the additional PV is really for opportunity loads and to see us through cloudy days.
I'll be really pleased if we can reduce the gen runtime to 0 through good load management and of course the added capacity of these new PVs.
The mounting structure is the "singlefix" system from Schletter which uses short 45cm mouting rails screwed directly to the sheet metal roof.
Attachment not found.
It was really easy and fast to fit since it uses self-drilling screws so the whole structure can be mounted from on top of the roof without having to connect nuts and bolts underneath the beams.
There's a video of the mounting system here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJj8LGxRmxE
Comments
-
Re: Thin film expansion
Nice install. The panels look very good on the orange roof.I have a lot of roof space, so the efficiency isn't really that much of a concern, all I really care about is Price/Watt in cloudy weather.
Is that simply because they're cheaper, or are they more efficient in the cloudy weather compared to full sunlight? -
Re: Thin film expansionIs that simply because they're cheaper, or are they more efficient in the cloudy weather compared to full sunlight?
They do better in full sunlight than cloudy weather, but in cloudy weather they may do better than poly or mono crystal panels. --vtMaps4 X 235watt Samsung, Midnite ePanel, Outback VFX3524 FM60 & mate, 4 Interstate L16, trimetric, Honda eu2000i -
Re: Thin film expansionIs that simply because they're cheaper, or are they more efficient in the cloudy weather compared to full sunlight?
As vtmaps said, they should be better than poly/mono under cloudy weather _and_ they were cheaper. Will have to wait until they degrade to their rated STC value before I can do a fair comparison with the poly's. -
Re: Thin film expansionAs vtmaps said, they should be better than poly/mono under cloudy weather _and_ they were cheaper. Will have to wait until they degrade to their rated STC value before I can do a fair comparison with the poly's.
Hi, Stephen, very good PV extension, maybe you put at work another midnite??? ...;-) -
Re: Thin film expansionHi, Stephen, very good PV extension, maybe you put at work another midnite??? ...;-)
Not yet The Yingli's are 2.8kW + 1.6kW Sharp so 4.4kW total, but so far I've only seen 3.8kW on the midnite; look forward to seeing what they can do when it cools down a bit. -
Re: Thin film expansionWill have to wait until they degrade to their rated STC value before I can do a fair comparison with the poly's.
Looking forward to this.
I have monos. My temperature adjusted production depends on the insolation linearly. I get about 6.2W from 1W/m2 of insolation. There's no degradation of performance at low light. -
Re: Thin film expansionNot yet The Yingli's are 2.8kW + 1.6kW Sharp so 4.4kW total, but so far I've only seen 3.8kW on the midnite; look forward to seeing what they can do when it cools down a bit.
that means you've managed to combine the two arrays with the same midnite? ...wow!...
at first I thought you have "mobilized" the tristar again ... ;-)
very good! ... you get to coincided everything okay! ...
that well with 48v, more flexibility, more capacity ... how many amp can swallows the midnite? ... hehehehe
yeh!, we have a few days of extreme heat which down the production a lot ... that will have to climb a lot in a good time! ...;-) -
Re: Thin film expansion
Yes the sharp's are in parallel with the existing array, this was one of the advantage of those panels, they have a Vmp of 45V and the Yingli's have a Vmp of 29.9V and since I have 3 x Yingli in series, 2 of the Sharp's fit in perfectly. The Midnite should be able to handle 80A at 48V, I've only seen 60A so far.
Northguy, unfortunately I don't have an insolation meter so will just be able to measure the sharp's relative to the yingli's not relative to insolation. -
Re: Thin film expansionYes the sharp's are in parallel with the existing array, this was one of the advantage of those panels, they have a Vmp of 45V and the Yingli's have a Vmp of 29.9V and since I have 3 x Yingli in series, 2 of the Sharp's fit in perfectly. The Midnite should be able to handle 80A at 48V, I've only seen 60A so far.
so you have enough with only one midnite...;-)
well thought out and very well finished ... hehehehe
how many daily kwh you get?... -
-
Re: Thin film expansion
Took the first readings during a cloudy day:
Poly: 0.193W/Wp installed.
Thin film: 0.197W/Wp installed.
I.e. hardly any difference. To give you an idea of the type of cloud cover, I was seeing 1.11kW from a total of 4.8kWp installed.
Attachment not found. -
Re: Thin film expansionPoly: 0.193W/Wp installed.
Thin film: 0.197W/Wp installed.
Looks exactly the same to me. However, you still can see the sun, so the angle could matter.
Categories
- All Categories
- 222 Forum & Website
- 130 Solar Forum News and Announcements
- 1.3K Solar News, Reviews, & Product Announcements
- 191 Solar Information links & sources, event announcements
- 887 Solar Product Reviews & Opinions
- 254 Solar Skeptics, Hype, & Scams Corner
- 22.3K Solar Electric Power, Wind Power & Balance of System
- 3.5K General Solar Power Topics
- 6.7K Solar Beginners Corner
- 1K PV Installers Forum - NEC, Wiring, Installation
- 2K Advanced Solar Electric Technical Forum
- 5.5K Off Grid Solar & Battery Systems
- 425 Caravan, Recreational Vehicle, and Marine Power Systems
- 1.1K Grid Tie and Grid Interactive Systems
- 651 Solar Water Pumping
- 815 Wind Power Generation
- 622 Energy Use & Conservation
- 608 Discussion Forums/Café
- 302 In the Weeds--Member's Choice
- 74 Construction
- 124 New Battery Technologies
- 108 Old Battery Tech Discussions
- 3.8K Solar News - Automatic Feed
- 3.8K Solar Energy News RSS Feed