REC solar panels review

REC

REC is short for Renewable Energy Corporation. The company was founded in Norway but now carries out all production in Singapore and the company is owned by the giant Chinese chemical corporation Bluestar that is also known as ChemChina. 

They produce tier one panels with 10 year product and a 25 year performance warranties that are certified as corrosion resistant.   REC has an Australian office in Melbourne.

A US Company Has A Similar Name

There is a company in the United States called REC Solar that installs commercial scale solar for businesses. They do not make their own solar panels. It is easy to confuse the two when looking for information on REC.

Manufacturing Capacity

REC is medium sized producer of solar panels. They shipped 1.34 gigawatts of panels in 2017.  This was more than what was installed in all of Australia that year.  They claim their Australian sales in 2017 were the highest they have ever been.

Company History

REC was founded in Norway in 1996 under the name Fornybar Energi AS and produced its first silicon wafer in 1997. It became REC after merging with another company in 2000. By taking advantage of Norway’s comparatively cheap hydroelectric power, for a period at the start of the century they become the world’s largest producer of multicrystaline silicon wafers used to make solar cells.

In 2008 and 2009 REC opened two new multicrystalline wafer factories in Norway. Then the company ran into financial difficulties and shut them down permanently a few years later in 2011 and 2012. In retrospect it doesn't appear to be a very bright move, but these are the sort of mistakes companies make when they decide for some reason not to predict the future with 100% accuracy.

In 2010 they started production of solar panels in Singapore and REC is  expanding capacity at this facility.  This is currently their only manufacturing site. 

In 2015 REC Solar was bought by the Norwegian company Elkem which is owned by the Chinese corporation Bluestar.  This makes REC Solar a Chinese owned company that manufactures in Singapore, but for some reason it is still often referred to as a European company.  I guess old habits die hard. 

They Are Big In Germany

REC started as a European company and they have been able to hold onto market share there.  They state that in 2016 they were the number one panel supplier in Germany and in in 2017 they also did well with 15% of the market share.  Punitive tariffs on Chinese panels in Europe that don't affect REC were part of this success. 

REC Solar Panels

REC produces two series of panels that are of standard size and likely to be used on residential roofs.

REC Peak Energy Panels

The REC Peak Energy series are similar to the majority of reliable panels on the market. Their efficiencies range from 15.2% to 16.7%. They are certified as corrosion resistant, making them suitable for installation in coastal areas.

REC Twin Peaks Panels

REC also produces TwinPeak series panels.  They are an interesting design because they are divided into top and bottom halves and if one half is shaded it won’t affect the output of the other. This makes them more tolerant to partial shade and soiling than many other panels. But if they are installed where there is no shade it is of little benefit. And like all solar panels they perform terribly when fully shaded.

The original TwinPeak panels are 16.1% to 17.3% efficient, while TwinPeak 2 panels are 16.5% to 17.7% efficient.  They are both certified as corrosion resistant.

There is also an all black version of the TwinPeaks 2 panel that is 16.5% to 17.1% efficient.  It is very black.  It looks like they took the monolith from the movie 2001 and stuck a fly screen on it.

Because Twin Peak 2 panels are made with silicon and aluminium that is produced mostly with hydroelectric power rather than fossil fuels, they are certified in Europe as having a low carbon footprint.

TwinPeaks Packaging

If you go to this page here and download their packaging specifications, you'll see that TwinPeaks panels come wrapped in plastic.  This fact makes me as happy as that gum I like coming back in style.

REC Panel Failure Rate

On the REC site they state:

“...out of 4 million panels manufactured each year, just 400 might come back as product claims.”

In other words their failure rate is around 1 in 10,000.  While those seem like good odds, they don’t say this is the predicted failure rate over the panel’s lifespan. It instead appears to be their failure rate when they are new, which isn’t quite as impressive as if it was over 25 years, but it is still pretty good.

REC Is Not Very Bright When It Comes To Warranties

On their internet site there is a video that proudly proclaims they have:

“...the highest quality solar panels on the market.”

But despite this, they only offer a 10 year product warranty.

You’d think with the highest quality panels on the market they’d be able to offer a longer warranty, wouldn’t you? After all, Solarwatt panels are on the market which means they must be of worse quality, yet they have a product warranty of 30 years. You would think that since REC panels are of higher quality they could manage something similar. But, despite the beneficial effect it would have on their sales, they seem to be sticking with 10 years, despite 12 year or longer product warranties are becoming increasingly common for tier one panels.

REC Is Ranked As Most Financially Secure Solar Panel Manufacturer

Solar panel manufacture is a very competitive business and many companies have gone bust, leaving customers without warranty support. Currently dark clouds hang over the futures of many panel producers.

But the clouds over REC are extremely tenuous. They’re more of a light mist, really. Because of the company’s current financial stability, REC has been ranked as the panel producer least likely to go belly up.

My Recommendation

REC produce quality tier one solar panels and I would have no problem installing them on my roof.