Whether you are getting a 5kW solar system in Melbourne or 6.6kW or 7kW or 10kW or 20kW or 30kW, regardless of which system you get, you should know the types of solar panels that you could get. For a 5kW solar system in Melbourne, you will need around 15 panels. Now the solar panels come in various sizes and material types. In this blog we will talk about the three major and popular types of solar panels.
1. Monocrystalline Solar Panels
Monocrystalline solar panels are the oldest ones and yet very developed. As you may have guessed, monocrystalline solar panels consist of monocrystalline solar cells. The panel has 40 monocrystalline solar cells and these cells are made from pure silicone. The cells look black as the result of the interaction between the pure silicone and the sunlight. The cells look black but the buyer can get the options in frames and back sheets.
Some of the Advantages of Monocrystalline Cells:
- Pyramid shaped placement, which provides better surface area resulting in better energy production.
- Higher efficiency rates of the solar cells
- Durability up to 30 years
- Higher heat resistance levels
Considering the benefits, monocrystalline solar panels can be quite costly.
2. Polycrystalline Solar Panels
Polycrystalline solar panels have several crystals of silicone in each photovoltaic cell. You must have seen the navy blue solar panels, those are the polycrystalline solar panels. They are the most popular and common ones hence most solar panels that you may have seen would have been blue. The polycrystalline solar panel is also known as multicrystalline solar panels. The silicone crystals are melted and then cut into wafers. Those wafers are put into the panels. The surface of the multicrystalline solar panels look mosaic. The blue colour is because of the silicone crystals.
The Advantages of Multicrystalline Cells:
- More eco-friendly than polycrystalline solar panels
- Simple manufacturing process which makes it less expensive
- Less silicone consumption
The multicrystalline solar panels have low heat tolerance and that makes them less efficient in high temperature conditions.
3. Thin-Film Panels
Thin-film solar panels are 350 times thinner than the regular silicon wafers. They are second generation panels. The uniqueness of thin-film solar panels lies in their material. They can be made from various materials such as cadmium telluride, amorphous silicon or copper indium gallium selenide.
Thin-film panels are second generation panels which means they have certain advantages which is making their popularity grow rapidly:
- They are flexible
- They can be made from different materials
- Less installation costs
- Lightweight construction
There is one downside to thin-film solar panels and that is their low efficiency. In fact thin-film solar panels have the lowest efficiency among all the solar panel types. Their efficiency rate reaches around 11 per cent.
Solar energy system is the future as it is one of the very few ways to stop the earth from getting destroyed with global warming and climate change. Solar energy is a renewable source which means its use makes you a contributor towards the betterment of our mother nature which will save the planet earth.