It s also important to note that bnef s tiered system ranks manufacturers and not specific panel lines.
Tier one solar panels.
Each year solar review publishes the latest tier 1 solar panels list in a bid to assist end user education understand the term tier 1 was not created as a quality guideline.
Typically tier 1 solar panels are 10 30 more expensive than tier 2 and tier 3 solar panels.
Learn what tier 1 solar panels actually mean in this solar basics video based on the story.
Solar panel manufacturers that claim to be tier 1 include.
That being said a bank would not fund a large scale project worth say 200 million dollars if the product used was likely to fail in the short term thus inadvertently a tier 1 solar panel is a high quality panel or should we say a solar panel that is designed to produce power for as long as the expected lifespan which is around 25 years.
Tier 1 solar panels are panels which are produced from tier 1 solar panel manufacturers that comply with a specific set of criteria.
This ranking system tier 1 2 3 etc was made to help big companies to take a decision related to the financing of medium to large scale solar power projects.
According to bloomberg a tier one solar manufacturer is nothing more than a company that has provided their panels for 6 large scale solar projects larger than 1 5mw that have been financed by 6 different banks within the last two years.
Based on bnef s criteria tier 1 modules are just those that are used in a lot of projects and almost all established solar companies are considered tier 1.
Tier 1 installers invest heavily in research development r d and continually innovate in order to improve their.
Not to be confused this list named the latest tier 1 solar panels list 2019 is available online.
Everything else is marketing spin.
Bnef does not publish tier 2 or tier 3 lists so any sub tiered lists out there are just made up marketing terms.
What makes a tier 1 solar panel an example from pike research first of all they are vertically integrated meaning that they don t simply assemble solar panels using other.
The answer may come as a bit of a shock.
The tiered solar panel classification was first developed to show banks which panel manufacturers were legitimate and trustworthy but it s evolved since.
Comprised of existing sources already made publicly available on the internet this latest tier 1 solar panels list 2020 is available in an easily indexable fashion for your convenience.
However close observation of the past trend shows that usually the top 5 brands in the tier 1 panel list can be taken as rule of thumb for laymen to select a pv panel brand for their business or residential pv system.
Tier 1 doesn t mean the panels are the best performing modules on the market.
In this 3 tier system the tier 1 list usually has around 35 companies.