{"id":33959,"date":"2019-10-04T06:19:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T19:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=33959"},"modified":"2025-07-29T10:12:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:42:32","slug":"q-cells-panel-warranty-mb1239","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/q-cells-panel-warranty-mb1239\/","title":{"rendered":"Q Cells Bumping Up Australian Solar Panel Product Warranty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Q<\/p>\n

Solar panel manufacturer Q Cells has announced it will set product warranties of 25 years on a couple of module lines that will be available in Australia.<\/p>\n

Solar panels come with two types of warranty. One is a product warranty covering defects in manufacturing that ranges from 10 years to 30 years.\u00a0 Performance warranties, which don’t really cover much<\/a>, are 25 or 30 years.<\/p>\n

Q Cells said it would “shake up” the Australian solar industry with its 25-year product warranties on Q.PEAK DUO-G5+ and the Q.PEAK DUO-G6+.<\/p>\n

\u201cQ CELLS is proud to be the first major manufacturer to be offering 25-year product warranties on its premium products from Korea,\u201d said<\/a> Myungsin Shim; Q Cells Australia’s Key Account Director.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s not quite correct – and the announcement does clarify this somewhat; stating Q Cells is the first Silicon Module Super League (SMSL) company to offer such a warranty. But it also states warranties of this duration were previously only offered by a few “lesser-produced, ultra-premium solar module manufacturers.”<\/p>\n

Brands such as SunPower – which offers 25 years product warranty – certainly fall into this class, but Hyundai probably wouldn’t be considered an “ultra-premium manufacturer”.<\/p>\n

Q Cells\u00a0 Vs. Hyundai<\/h2>\n

As SQ’s Ronald previously reported, Hyundai Energy Solutions bumped up product warranty<\/a> in Australia from 12 to 25 years in August – so let’s compare a few aspects of the Hyundai 300W HiA-S300RG with the Q.PEAK DUO-G5 315W (which has a 12 year product warranty).<\/p>\n

I’m not sure if there’s any difference between the DUO-G5 and DUO-G5+ as I couldn’t locate datasheets for G5+ on Q Cells’ site.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

UPDATE 10.35AM:<\/strong> We’ve been told the only difference between the DUO-G5 and DUO-G5+ is the warranty and the only G5+ to be available in Australia will be the 330W panel.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

The estimated retail price of Hyundai’s 300W solar panel works out to around 75 cents per watt. The pricing we have noted on our solar panel comparison table<\/a> for the Q.PEAK DUO-G5 315W is 84c a watt.<\/p>\n

The Hyundai 300W HiA-S300RG offers a module efficiency<\/a> of 18.44%, while the Q.PEAK DUO-G5 315W module is 18.7%. So, the Q Cells module is a little more efficient.<\/p>\n

In terms of temperature coefficient<\/a>, i.e. the amount of power lost for each degree Celsius above 25\u00b0C (panel temperature, not air), the Hyundai comes in at -0.41%\/\u00b0C while the Q-Cells is -0.37%\/\u00b0C. Again, the Q-Cells panel is better.<\/p>\n

The warranted annual performance degradation for years 2-25 for the Hyundai is 0.70% loss each year and for the Q Cells, 0.60% per year.<\/p>\n

As for dimensions, Hyundai: 992mm (W) \u00d7 1640mm (L) \u00d7 35mm (H); Q Cells: 1000mm (W) 1685mm (L) \u00d7 32 mm (H) – Hyundai is a tad smaller and slighter thicker, but the Q-Cells panel offers 15W more capacity. The Hyundai is around 500 grams lighter than Q Cells.<\/p>\n

Q Cells’ over-exuberant claim aside, it’s great to see more quality solar panel manufacturers jumping on board the 25-year product warranty bandwagon. Members of this club now include:<\/p>\n