LG solar panels review

LG Solar produces high quality, tier 1 solar panels and are part of the giant South Korean company LG. In 2016 they produced 1,200 megawatts of panels. While this is only 20% of what the world leader Jinko produced, LG Solar is still a large player in the premium panel market.

Most of the panels LG Solar currently sell in Australia have a 12 year product warranty, which is two years longer than the the standard for tier 1 panels. They also just released the NeON R, with a 25 year product warranty.

LG has offices in every mainland state capital. While Tasmania misses out, this is much better coverage than most tier one manufacturers who usually only have a single office in Australia, or in some cases, none at all.

LG Are Reliable Panels

LG claim that of 360,000 panels installed in Australia, only 3 have been returned - due to poor installation. LG claim they have never had an Australian panel come back due to production failure.

This reliability comes at a premium of around a 25% higher price per watt.

LG Is A Huge Company

LG Solar is part of LG Electronics which is part of the South Korean corporation LG which used to go by the surprisingly chipper name, Lucky Goldstar. LG is enormous and has a market capitalisation of over $14 billion.

The net wealth of the entire population of the nation of Tonga comes to less than $14 billion. This means the LG Corporation has more money than some countries.

Note I’m not saying the value of Tonga itself is less than $14 billion, as the whole can be worth more than the sum of its parts. For example, I’m sure we could get Lex Luthor to pay more than $14 billion for Tonga as a whole.

LG is involved in a wide range range of areas covering chemicals, electronics, and communications. The company has so many fingers in so many pies I'm surprised they haven't grafted extra arms to their CEO.

While LG headquarters is in the South Korean capital of Seoul, solar panel manufacture takes place in the industrial city of Gumi, which, through some dark sorcery, actually manages to have a worse climate than Seoul.

While LG had been tooling around with solar cells in some form or another for over 20 years, they only entered panel manufacturing in 2009.

LG Solar Panels

While LG appears to manufacture panels that only carry a standard 10 year warranty for use overseas, the three panels they currently sell in Australia, the LG Mono X 2, the LG NeON 2, and the LG NeON 2 Black, all come with a 12 year product warranty. They also have a 25 year performance warranty, but this is rarely of use to householders.

The LG Mono X 2 has an efficiency of around 17% while LG NeOn 2 panels can have an efficiency of up to 19.5% which can make them very useful for installations with a limited amount of roof space. The LG NeON 2 Black has slightly lower efficiency, but some people like its dark colour, so I highly recommend it for people who think black is the new black.

All the panels are salt mist and ammonia corrosion resistant and so are suitable for installation anywhere in Australia.

Lost In Translation

LG says their NeON solar panels use double sided wafers. I find this very interesting, because I can't for the life of me work out what a single sided wafer could be. If a wafer only has one side and I turned it over, would it disappear? If it did disappear, how could I turn it over again to get back to its single side?

I am thinking maybe something got lost in translation here and they are referring to a feature almost all solar panels have, which is making use of light reflected off the back of the cell.

LG Chem Produces Battery Storage

LG produces a home battery storage system but that is made by LG Chem and not LG Solar and these two parts of the company probably have nothing at all to do with each other.

A Reliable Panel At A Premium Price

Any solar panel that comes with a product warranty longer than the standard 10 years is likely to be of very high quality and the LG panels available in Australia are no exception. If you are willing to pay perhaps 25% more than you would for a tier 1 panel with a standard 10 year warranty for extra peace of mind, then LG panels could certainly suit you.