I may have a lead on GE panels. Anyone have any experiance with them? They don't seem to rate as the most efficient, but they seem durable...

TIA,
Eric

Are you talking new or used?

GE bought Astropower power in Bankruptcy in 2003, they are basically the exact same panels that Astropower made

As far as life, there are two types of Silicon Panels, Mono and Poly Chrystalline panels. Mono is about 1/2% better efficiency wise, almost no one makes them anymore. All vendors of Poly Silicon are pretty much the same ( Silicon is Silicon ).

GE is as big as them come, so if you do have problems, they will be around in 5-20 years to handle warranty issues.

These would be new... I'll post how things progess.

sg,
i know where it is you can get monocrystalines.
http://www.solarpowerindustries.com/std ... rcells.htm

Hi Neil,

I could have been clearer in my first response!. Monocrystalline cells are available, its just percentage wise a small slice of the pie of PV manufactured each year.

BP and Solar World ( formally Shell ) both offer mono's and I guess the SunPower ones are mono as well, but thats a different interconnecting process.

My advise to the original poster and to anyone buying panels is buy in the price per watt, as the small differences for most applications has little value beyond space savings.

SG

no problem as it does tend to go by the wattage anyway that many manufacturers base the price for charging consumers and middle man variations as well. it's not always good to go by the price per watt either as the thin films are overpriced in my opinion with poor warranties and efficiencies. poor efficiency equates to larger areas to produce the same power as compared to the more efficient pvs and a higher cost for mounting the same amount of wattage.
i know i type too much, but for me to agree with sg is to say if the price is right, buy them. future availability for replacement and expansion is also a consideration, but it is not an exact science as it's difficult in predicting who may stay with it and who won't.
btw henry, the link i gave isn't for the cells you are thinking of that had both of the connections on the back side of the cell and is a company in my general area(never visited) and used to be called ebara. under ebara they had ties to one of the japanese manufacturers, but now is purely usa only i believe. i never asked them for a price list yet to compare their product to others.

I alway like that you type allot! , its very informative for others!

You and I have the same thoughts on thin film ( thats a-Si aka Uni-solar type products). I have heard nothing but problems with them. I have also read posts from people who post that there great, but thats from marketing literature, not actual ownership of the products

sg,
funny you should mention unisolar as i do have a couple of the 64s. they work ok, but with the best of the more efficient mono and multi crystaline pvs out there the output for the same area nearly doubles over the unisolar thin films. the only advantage i see in the thin films is that they have no glass to break which is good in bad or semibad neighborhoods like mine. a good example is the comparrison between a us64 and a kc130.