There are many types of solar panels. They come in all shapes and sizes. How do you tell which one you’re dealing with? This is a great question — one I didn’t know the answer to when I first got acquainted with solar panels.
Let’s start off and discuss the three main types of photovoltaic (PV) panels:
- Monocrystalline Solar Panels – Monocrystalline cells are cut from a block of silicon that has been grown from a single crystal.These tend to be the most efficient, but also the most expensive solar panels. They have been considered the go-to panels for the last couple decades, and also boast being the oldest and most dependable.
- Polycrystalline Solar Panels – Polycrystalline cells are cut from multifaceted silicon crystal. They don’t come from a single piece of silicon crystal, but rather from many different crystals. These solar panels tend to be less efficient than monocrystalline solar panels of the same size. This means a 200 Watt Monocrystalline panel will usually be smaller than a 200 Watt Polycrystalline panel.
- Thin Film or Amorphous Solar Panels – These panels are not made up of any crystals. They are actually a thin layer of silicon deposited on a substrate or base material like metal or glass. Thin film solar panels tend to be the least efficient per square foot, but they are also the cheapest. The best application for amorphous panels is if you have a large amount of surface area and space doesn’t matter.
I talk a lot about efficiency above. I want to note that I am referring to efficiency per square foot. A 200 Watt Monocrystalline panel will generate as much electricity as a 200 Watt Polycrystalline panel or four 50 Watt Thin Film Panels. The main difference would be size.
So how can you tell which type of solar panel is which? It’s easy to tell the difference between monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels versus thin film panels. Monocrystalline and polycrystalline panels are rigid and much thicker than thin film. Thin film panels are flexible and they are, well, “thin.” Thin film also has a mostly uniform color.
Now let’s talk about the visual differences between monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels. Polycrystalline usually have a shattered glass look. This is because polycrystalline panels are made up from many different crystals put together. Monocrystalline panels tend to have more of a one-color look to them because they come from one crystal.
Brightstar Solar is a Massachusetts solar company specializing in residential and commercial installations. We can help you determine which type of solar panel is right for your project. Please contact us for a free solar evaluation of your home or business in Massachusetts.
Pingback: Tweets that mention Types of Solar Panels: Size, Shape, Color, & Efficiency — BRIGHTSTAR SOLAR -- Topsy.com
Hi there friends, how is everything, and what you desire to say about this post, in my view its actually remarkable
in favor of me.
Hey there! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any trouble with hackers?
My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing many months of hard work
due to no back up. Do you have any solutions to stop hackers?
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest
but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your
site to come back down the road. Cheers
This post will assist the internet viewers for creating new
website or even a blog from start to end.
I think the admin of this site is genuinely working hard in support of his web site, because here every data is
quality based information.
of course like your website but you need to take a look at the
spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I
in finding it very troublesome to inform the truth
on the other hand I will certainly come again again.
Hola! I’ve been following your site for a long time now and finally
got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Tx!
Just wanted to say keep up the good job!
What’s up, just wanted to say, I enjoyed this blog post.
It was inspiring. Keep on posting!
Valuable information. Lucky me I found your website unintentionally,
and I am stunned why this accident didn’t took place earlier!
I bookmarked it.
It is truly a great and useful piece of info. I am glad that you simply shared this helpful information with us.
Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks
for sharing.
This article offers clear idea in favor of the new visitors of blogging,
that truly how to do running a blog.
Good blog you have got here.. It’s hard to find high quality writing like yours nowadays.
I truly appreciate people like you! Take care!!
Can you be more specific about the content of your article? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me.