Chinese ETFE Flexible Solar Panels

[davidguilbault]

Hi folks. I have a 1976 GMC Palm Beach motorhome. It has two rooftop air conditioners. They would be perfect places to adhere two square ETFE flexible 50W solar panels. I see a bunch being sold on AliExpress. Can anyone recommend any particular brand of Chinese flexible solar panels and appropriate solar charge controllers? Thanks folks. Hope all is well with you and yours. Kind regards. David.

 

[Leithfield]

Frankly, I would encourage that you forgo the Chinese panels and, if intent upon flexible 50W, consider instead the Sunpower 50W panels available on Amazon which are significantly superior and field proven. Am running a singular Sunpower (genuine) panel atop the bimini on my boat via a Victron Smartsolar 75/15 mppt controller, to maintain both the starting and deepcycle trolling battery ... can't recommend them highly enough. Output regularly exceeds 50W and it maintains both batteries superbly.?

 

[MrNatural22]

Hi folks. I have a 1976 GMC Palm Beach motorhome. It has two rooftop air conditioners. They would be perfect places to adhere two square ETFE flexible 50W solar panels. I see a bunch being sold on AliExpress. Can anyone recommend any particular brand of Chinese flexible solar panels and appropriate solar charge controllers? Thanks folks. Hope all is well with you and yours. Kind regards. David.

The flexible concept is great but they have relatively short life spans compared to rigid glass panels. Heat degradation and yellowing In Arizona or any warm hot sunny climate destroys them fast especially if they’re affixed flat to any surface with no cooling airflow underneath. My two failed panels were in a frame with abundant cooling airflow underneath, died within one year. Your lucky to get one year of life out on even the best ones. Research flexible solar panels short lives.
✌

 

[nwillitts]

i have 2 renogy 100 watt flexible flat panels.
4 years old now.still working.

 

[ghostwriter66]

i have 2 renogy 100 watt flexible flat panels.
4 years old now.still working.

You are one of the rare exceptions ... I will say that we probably had 20 of them at work -- 100W Flexible -- and within a year they were all cracked - discolored -- heat kills them and with them laying directly on a surface they just cook themselves to death ... and if we got 50 watts out of them on a bright cold day at noon we were lucky ... we couldn't even give them away after a year ...

 

[PfloydBham]

Hey Gh66,
What have you found to be the best value? I am in the south central sunbelt and want to simply assemble a system of around 5 - 10 kw to travel with. I mostly want longevity with little maintenance. Likely the same as everybody else.
I like the honesty of your posts.
PS: I am also just curios as to the whole solar power evolution. I think that if I live with it, I may be able to help promote something useful. Sounds a little "Mister Rogers", doesn't it?
Pink

 

[nwillitts]

You are one of the rare exceptions ... I will say that we probably had 20 of them at work -- 100W Flexible -- and within a year they were all cracked - discolored -- heat kills them and with them laying directly on a surface they just cook themselves to death ... and if we got 50 watts out of them on a bright cold day at noon we were lucky ... we couldn't even give them away after a year ...

i have them open mounted,not laying flat.they are starting to get a little ragged tho.i like them a lot because they are so light and portable.

 

[davidguilbault]

Frankly, I would encourage that you forgo the Chinese panels and, if intent upon flexible 50W, consider instead the Sunpower 50W panels available on Amazon which are significantly superior and field proven. Am running a singular Sunpower (genuine) panel atop the bimini on my boat via a Victron Smartsolar 75/15 mppt controller, to maintain both the starting and deepcycle trolling battery ... can't recommend them highly enough. Output regularly exceeds 50W and it maintains both batteries superbly.?View attachment 4908View attachment 4909

 

[HighTechLab]

I was actually sent a handfull of solar panels by a company in China, for video review on my YouTube channel. Unfortunately after bench analysis they really lack the performance I was hoping for and based on what I've been told in terms of lifespan, I wouldn't want to put any holes in my trailer for these because there is no guarantee that the next set of panels will fit the same holes when these wear out. I strongly dislike how they are intended to be attached and making a nice clean wiring connection is extremely difficult. I was planning on mounting these on top of a teardrop trailer.

 

[davidguilbault]

These are the 50 watt flexible solar panels, listed on Amazon, that I am considering:

RichSolar (ETFE) - $66
SunPower - $89
Renogy - $80
AllPowers - $60

 

[DolfjeWolfje]

The main problem with the flexible panels is the heat!
If you glue the panel on a polyester surface (my boat) the panels were fried in one year!
To try solve this problem With experimenting with aluminium plates (3mm). The results where surprisingly good!! After more then 4 years the panels are still good! Those 2 panels (pet coating) looks old and weathered, but still ok! (The two black and white panels)
I glued the panel with sicaflex on the plate which can rotate 360 degrees. See picture 1.

In picture 1 you can see 4 50Watt panels. 2 old and 2 new (the black ones with etfe coating )
This year I made an upgrade of the heatexchanger by increasing the cooling surface are by gluing aluminium U-profiles (10x10 mm) on the backside of the aluminium plate. See picture 2.
For even better heat transfer the backside was painted black see picture 3

this resulted in a reduction of 20 degrees!! The panel with heat exchanger did not feel warm at all!!

picure 4. An 80 Watt panel with heat exchanger fixated on the deck. 10 mm space for airflow.

New panels from:
€ 52,98 27％ Off | Flexibele Zonnepaneel 50W Etfe + Eva Film Fotovoltaïsche Zonnepaneel (Thermostable) 18V Voor 12V Beslag Wisselaar

€ 52,98 27％ Off | Flexibele Zonnepaneel 50W Etfe Eva Film Fotovoltaïsche Zonnepaneel (Thermostable) 18V Voor 12V Beslag Wisselaar

star.aliexpress.com

To be continued...

more results will follow as the summer arrives.

location The Netherlands.

 

[Njord]

The main problem with the flexible panels is the heat!
If you glue the panel on a polyester surface (my boat) the panels were fried in one year!
To try solve this problem With experimenting with aluminium plates (3mm). The results where surprisingly good!! After more then 4 years the panels are still good! Those 2 panels (pet coating) looks old and weathered, but still ok! (The two black and white panels)
I glued the panel with sicaflex on the plate which can rotate 360 degrees. See picture 1.

In picture 1 you can see 4 50Watt panels. 2 old and 2 new (the black ones with etfe coating )
This year I made an upgrade of the heatexchanger by increasing the cooling surface are by gluing aluminium U-profiles (10x10 mm) on the backside of the aluminium plate. See picture 2.
For even better heat transfer the backside was painted black see picture 3

this resulted in a reduction of 20 degrees!! The panel with heat exchanger did not feel warm at all!!

picure 4. An 80 Watt panel with heat exchanger fixated on the deck. 10 mm space for airflow.

New panels from:
€ 52,98 27％ Off | Flexibele Zonnepaneel 50W Etfe + Eva Film Fotovoltaïsche Zonnepaneel (Thermostable) 18V Voor 12V Beslag Wisselaar

€ 52,98 27％ Off | Flexibele Zonnepaneel 50W Etfe Eva Film Fotovoltaïsche Zonnepaneel (Thermostable) 18V Voor 12V Beslag Wisselaar

star.aliexpress.com

To be continued...

more results will follow as the summer arrives.

location The Netherlands.

What is hte output like and how has it been going for hte last few months? I'm looking at the 100W version of these

 

[meetyg]

I bought 4 100w ETFE panels from Aliexpress a while ago (cost around $120 each including shipping).
I can't say much about their lifespan, as I have used them intermittently during the last year, while setting up my small DIY grid-tie system.

What I can say that they heat up very quickly.
The average performance I'm getting is around 80w per panel, which I blame the heat for.
When I briefly checked open-circuit voltage and current, they do give close to 100w, but that drops significantly as they heat up during the day.
My permanent setup is that now the ETFE panels are installed on a "wing" of my pergola (see pic, which also shows my newer 455w Longi solar glass panel on the pergola itself), and have some open air underneath (between the pergola planks) but thats not enough.

Glass panels are much more efficient and cost worthy, but also weigh alot more.
That's why I got the ETFEs, as not to put too much weight on the wing of my fairly old wooden pergola.

For now I will just use them till they die, but I don't think I will be getting any more to replace them. Simply not cost effective.
I would be surprised if they will last me 5 years.