About two years back, for one of the rooftop solar consulting assignments that I did, the client, a small but highly profitable software company in Chennai, was keen on having the most premium solar panels.
He wanted to know the best solar panels in the world, in terms of efficiency.
I told him that would be SunPower which (at that time) gave about 21% efficiency, much higher than any polycrystalline solar panel. The client was impressed and wanted to go ahead on that. I then dropped the bomb – the very high efficiency monocrystalline solar panels typically cost 50% higher than the conventional polycrystalline solar panels.
I expected the client to drop the idea of going for the high efficiency panels, but to my surprise and to his credit, he stuck with his idea of going for the most premium solar panels.
Very few clients in India would have done that.
All these make one wonder the real benefits of having high efficiency solar panels on your rooftop.
Here are the guys from Solar Mango answering the question: Is it a good idea to have high efficiency solar panels on the rooftop? (part of Innovations in Solar series)
Also check out: EAI Consulting for Solar Energy – Solar PV & Solar Thermal