After weeks of waiting, we’ve finally launched our much-anticipated “Real World PV Panel Challenge” – an unbiased, side-by-side comparison of some of the leading solar products on the market.
We first started receiving requests for such a Challenge as far back as 2010 – maybe even earlier. And had we done it then, I’m sure it would have been a huge success.
But I’m actually glad we waited. 2013 seems like the perfect year to start comparing PV products side-by-side. In the past several months, a number of high profile solar manufacturers have been caught deceiving customers with misleading claims about panel performance and warranties.
ASP (a.k.a BlueChip Energy) is probably the most conspicuous example of this trend, but as someone who has worked in solar for decades, I can attest that the problem goes much deeper than just one company.
Just to be clear – not all solar PV manufacturers are dishonest. But with little oversight, high competition, and easy profits, companies are incentivized to over-promise and under-deliver.
In addition, even the most “accurate” solar panel performance tests are conducted in sterile laboratory environments. It doesn’t matter if you live in the Mojave Dessert or Miami, FL – your solar panels will never reach this performance output.
This is why our Solar PV Challenge is so important.
We’ll totally disregard the performance labeling and determine for ourselves how powerful each of these solar products are – under live, real-world conditions. No potentialities, no promises, no theoretical ideals. We’ll only report how much clean solar energy these competing technologies actually produce.
Now – a part of me wanted to start the Solar PV Challenge with some of the dishonored and discredited solar PV equipment that has recently come under fire. Believe me, we recently removed, at great cost, a number of products on our own rooftop that we must painfully recover from panels purchased from corrupt ASP aka Blue Chip Energy.
But rather than start with the low-hanging fruit, we decided to begin our Solar PV Challenge with one of the most popular solar inverter products within the Miami solar market – SolarEdge. Because we already distribute SolarEdge, it only seemed fair. After all, how can we promote the items in our catalog without subjecting them to public scrutiny?
Over this past weekend, we put SMA, Enphase and SolarEdge up on our campus rooftop. All stated they can withstand Florida’s humid, hurricane-prone climate in mind, and we’re anxious to see how they stack up to one another.
The official results will be published starting May 15, 2013. But based on the preliminary results, it seems that our strong preference for SolarEdge is justified. It’s too soon to tell – so I won’t say anything more (and besides, I don’t want to jinx the Challenge).
So keep tuning in or click on the following link to learn more about the USSolar Real-World PV Challenge.
If you live in the Miami Metro Area, feel free to come to our campus in Fort Lauderdale and see the Solar Challenge in person. Our team would love to meet you and answer whatever questions you have about solar training, PV equipment, and anything else… under the sun.