Posts By Ronald Brakels, Author & Fact-Checker At SolarQuotes

Don’t let a half-cut solar installer install your half-cut (AKA split-cell) solar panels.

Silicon solar cells of the type now used for almost every residential solar installation in Australia have been around for a long time.  They are 64 years old.  This makes them the same age as nuclear power generation.  They’ve come a long way since they were first made at Bell Labs in the United States.  Originally they were only able to convert around 6% of the energy in sunlight into electrical energy but now the most efficient solar panels on the market manage 22%.

Unfortunately, the days of large improvements in efficiency have long been over.  Now we only see small incremental improvements and one of these in use that will be much more common in the future are panels that use half-cut solar cells. These panels are known as both half-cut and split-cell solar panels. [Read more…]

It’s only two months now since I wrote an article telling everyone in the world the product warranty for LG Solar’s NeON 2 panel was being extended from 12 years to 15.  But if you were looking forward to to getting some NeON 2 solar panels and enjoying that sweet 15 year warranty, I’m afraid you’re out of luck because it’s no longer available.  Instead you’ll just have to enjoy a massive 25 year product warranty as it has been extended by another 10 years. [Read more…]