SolarByTheWatt.com

Solar panels sold at large order quantities for industrial needs are being offered at lower and lower prices.
SolarMaxDirect.com, a distributor for solar photovoltaic modules, has recently dropped prices for large industrial size orders.
Buyers involved in projects of 50kw and upwards can get their panels at prices $2.25 per watt peak and lower.
The offered industrial [...]

Do Solar Photovoltaic Modules Have to be UL Listed? Are There Other Certification Options?

Ok here were coming back to an issue that was brought up by us early on and we were trying to get different opinions on. That is UL listing or photovoltaic equipment being listed, at all.

It seems like everyone who purchases photovoltaic modules in the US is verifying whether the modules are UL listed.

What does that mean and where does the concern come from?

Well here is the latest of what we find.

The requirement really comes from the National Electric Code (NEC), but the requirement does not directly specify that the listing should be by UL (Underwriters Laboratories – a company).

The exact requirement states:

We are continuing our series of articles on lowest prices per watt for solar photovoltaic panels where every time we have changes in the price ranking we will publish a new article with corresponding date in the title.

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through or Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too. Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists” out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes.

A Review of Total Investment Cost, Dollar per Watt Peak and Euro per Watt Peak for Large Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant Projects.

A reader of SolarByTheWatt.com commented in a letter to us (via the Contact Us page/form) on how important it is for publications when price of solar photovoltaic is discussed – dollar per watt – to point out the difference between cost of solar just for the modules or panels and the cost of completing a whole system.

The price to complete a whole system in addition to the price of panels will include price of mounting, installation hardware, wiring, junction boxes, disconnects, price of the inverter or inverters, wiring and disconnect boxes from inverter to grid switch box, price of installation service (usually specifically trained and certified professionals are involved). In the case of a large scale projects the part of the project involving connection to the grid can be of substantial value too. In these project the price of the land used and all permits for the land and for the utility project also add to the cost.

SolarMaxDirect. Com is offering by the container solar photo voltaic panels at $2.25 delivery included. This is another development in solar prices that shows that solar can become economically very efficient and interest among industrialists will increase in building solar power.

We are continuing our series of articles on lowest prices per watt for solar photovoltaic panels where every time we have changes in the price ranking we will publish a new article with corresponding date in the title.

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through or Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too. Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists” out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes.

A specialist from one of the companies distributing and retailing solar panels brought up a question for discussion that is not usually very specifically talked about but was raised by a client of theirs. The client was looking for the most efficient panels in terms of peak power (rated watts) per square foot of the panel (module) the way it was commercially available.

He was not interested to hear about the comparison between the different technologies in particular because they are usually compared on cell level and the data available is usually from scientific lab test not necessarily directly related to the realistic efficiency of the finished panel. When cells are actually implemented in the configuration of the panel there might be numerous factors additionally affecting the power-to-physical-area efficiency of the panel.

We are issuing this quick analysis of the current solar photovoltaic industry and related businesses and we also want to announce some topics we are currently preparing analysis on for you to know what to expect soon from SolarByTheWatt.com (Solar By The Watt Dot Com).

There has been a huge interest to our analysis till now on cost per watt of components (panels, modules etc.) as well as of whole projects and the reflection of that on economic efficiency (return on investment) from solar photovoltaic projects. Such articles include: Price, Dollar Per Watt for Large Solar Photovoltaic Projects , Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-02-24 and Economics of Solar Power. Our Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt series will continue when we have a good update on the contenders in the top list. Notice that differently from many popular low price listings …

One of the most frequently asked questions to consultants and specialists in the solar energy industry is how efficient is the investment in a solar power installation – small or large.

We want to look at a very simple model of economic efficiency where are interested in the annual return on investment. A project involving a solar photovoltaic installation requires certain amount of capital to be built and will expect certain amount of annual revenue. The simple indicator of efficiency that we want to study is this annual return in invested capital.

You probably know the sun generates more than 10,000 times the amount of energy the entire world consumes annually. Yet, this “free” energy has remained greatly untapped. Conversely, the environment is being degraded by our current energy choices. The positives for using solar panels are obvious, but what few know is how it also helps our environment.

First lets look at what we are using currently to meet our energy needs, coal and nuclear energy, and how ecologically damaging they are.