Heliene 580w bifacial panels

Hey guys,

i'm looking at buying a pallet of (28) 570-580w heliene bifacials for $3800 ($0.236/w) . Seems like a good deal. I've heard of Heliene and of course the seller says theyre the best in the world. the glass is 3.2mm where a lot of others are 2mm. just want to make sure this is actually a good thing. we dont get much snow or hail here in GA so not sure i care about thick glass. More interested in personal experience with these panels or the company.

156HC M10 SL bifacials

What I've read is that when a bifacial says 3.2mm, it really means 1.6mm on the front and 1.6mm on the back. Then 2.0mm will usually be 2.0mm on front and back for 4.0mm total. I have seen some panels that say 2.0mm front, 1.6mm back.

This really confuses me. I live with the specter of hailstorms and don't really know how to pick something that will do well. The only consolation is panels are getting cheaper at such a fast rate, when they get destroyed, replacements ought to be much cheaper.

For hail apparently the standard testing is just one panel tested, once, pass/fail. So, basically useless.

I found this report which seems to have done more thorough testing, but they only give vague results, saying JA Solar and Longi performed best in thier hail tests.

As for the panels they seem fine. 23.6c/watt is a good price, idk if there's gonna be additional freight to jack that price up. If it's an offer others can take advantage of, please share with the class. Just over 19w/sqft is pretty normal. Bear in mind they're huge panels, about the size and weight of a 5/8 sheet of drywall. You can save because you need fewer panels for the same wattage and fewer per panel expenses, rsd devices and mounting hardware and such.

I'm aware of the size and weight. Right now the plan is to ground mount them.

Here's the link. He's in Athens, TN. Also has some batteries (Ylink?) maybe some inverters.

https://www.facebook.com/share/hQUwhx6F8bNeRnTF/?mibextid=kL3p88

@tonyandjill - I purchased a pallet of these modules from Jay a few weeks ago, I would carefully inspect the panels at the bottom of the stack and make sure they are lined up and not slid over. When I picked them up at his Knoxville warehouse it was obvious that the panel on the bottom was broken, and he provided a replacement plus I purchased 8 more for a total of 36. When I unstacked them the one next to the bottom was also broken. I called Jay and he is going to replace the one and I am going to buy 6 more to expand my array to 42 The quote for the Sinclair ground mount is in the works. Jay is a pretty straight shooter I bought 16 zShine panels from him earlier this year for a separate system on our farm.

Good luck

mikeenea said:

@tonyandjill - I purchased a pallet of these modules from Jay a few weeks ago, I would carefully inspect the panels at the bottom of the stack and make sure they are lined up and not slid over. When I picked them up at his Knoxville warehouse it was obvious that the panel on the bottom was broken, and he provided a replacement plus I purchased 8 more for a total of 36. When I unstacked them the one next to the bottom was also broken. I called Jay and he is going to replace the one and I am going to buy 6 more to expand my array to 42 The quote for the Sinclair ground mount is in the works. Jay is a pretty straight shooter I bought 16 zShine panels from him earlier this year for a separate system on our farm.

Good luck

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hey, thanks Mike! that's great info. i'll be picking up at his Athens location and he said he doesnt have a forklift. so i'll be hand loading each one, and inspecting as i go. I'm pretty excited, been studying this stuff for about a year now. Anyone have any predictions on the effect of the change to the tax law? my understanding is that some chinese companies that were circumventing ADD taxation by rerouting through other countries before coming here will no longer be getting away with that. Just not sure exactly how much it's going to effect us.

tonyandjill said:

hey, thanks Mike! that's great info. i'll be picking up at his Athens location and he said he doesnt have a forklift. so i'll be hand loading each one, and inspecting as i go. I'm pretty excited, been studying this stuff for about a year now. Anyone have any predictions on the effect of the change to the tax law? my understanding is that some chinese companies that were circumventing ADD taxation by rerouting through other countries before coming here will no longer be getting away with that. Just not sure exactly how much it's going to effect us.

Click to expand...

Don't have a feel for the tax implications at my level, I am trying to get as much stockpiled and then build my system -- I can tell you to bring some help those modules are really heavy and their size makes them hard to handle.

Got the panels home. He actually let me pick through and get all 580w panels! He has a mix of 570 and 580. they are all beautiful, brand new, no damage. very nice. he was still bragging on the 3.2mm glass, not sure how big a deal that is for me other than they all made it home without breaking.

these things are huge! basically 4x8ft lol. i'm going to post in my other thread regarding planning. just need to make sure my plan is still sound. I'll add pics here of the panels and labels soon.

Congrats, that's a pretty screaming deal.

I read your other thread and you were looking for temperature estimates. If you go to PVwatts results page and download the hourly info, it will give you a spreadsheet that has a field with an estimate of cell temperature each hour.

Citlalatonac said:

Congrats, that's a pretty screaming deal.

I read your other thread and you were looking for temperature estimates. If you go to PVwatts results page and download the hourly info, it will give you a spreadsheet that has a field with an estimate of cell temperature each hour.

Click to expand...

Thanks, looking at that now. Great info. i've used pvwatts before, just never exported the data. According to the site i should ROI in about 5 years. Not bad. of course that will change everytime i add batteries and mini splits lol