The demand for Puerto Rico solar panels continues to grow and there’s a good reason. Every day, more people want to take advantage of two of the island’s greatest resources, the sunlight and its tropical location. As such, adding a Puerto Rico solar system to your residence saves you money and it’s always smart to be conscious of the environment. Clean renewable energy allows you to maintain your lifestyle while remaining green.
Also, did you know Puerto Rico has the highest priced electrical grids in the United States? Going solar can help insulate you from the high prices. Sadly, this tropical paradise is also known for its shaky power grid. After Hurricane Maria, it took over a year to restore power in some locations of the island. Consequently, its smart to prepare for any emergency nowadays.
Efficiency
To find the most efficient panels you need to know a few things. First, you need to learn how to compare efficiency metrics for different manufacturer brands. One metric that could help you determine how much power a solar panel produces compared to other products is solar panel efficiency. Here we will explain solar panel efficiency and what you need to know about the most efficient solar panels in the industry.
Puerto Rico Solar Panels – Comparison
Experts, sellers, and buyers in the solar industry of Puerto Rico consider solar panel efficiency to be the most important criteria when rating a solar panel’s quality. The efficiency of a solar panel is the measurement of the panel’s ability to convert sunlight into usable electricity.
Puerto Rico Solar Panel – San Juan
For example, if you give two different solar panels, from different manufacturers the same amount of sunlight, for the same amount of time; the more efficient solar panel will produce more electricity than its lesser efficient competitor.
To put it to practice, say two solar panels are the same size, but one has an efficiency rating of 20% and the other has a 16% rating. The most efficient panels can produce 50% more kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity under the same conditions. These results tell you that the more efficient panel has more solar cells. Solar cells are the part of the device that directly converts the sunlight into electricity.
Puerto Rico Solar Panels – Composition
A panel’s composition, electrical configuration, surrounding components, and more, can all play a role in the panel’s final efficiency. Understanding solar panel rating is important, but there are a few more things to consider about your potential solar panel’s quality such as your panel’s ability to convert energy at a low cost and a high supply rate. You may wonder how efficient is a solar panel supposed to be and what might happen when a contractor starts talking numbers of efficiency. Save yourself the confusion because most solar panels have a 15% to 20% efficiency average. Dismiss any sellers who exaggerate on efficiency and when providing exact details, they exceed far from the real numbers. There are exceptions in where high-quality solar can exceed 22% efficiency or even 23%, but in most cases, the majority is not above 20%.
Puerto Rico Solar Panels – Materials
You might wonder what criteria a solar panel brand has to meet in order to receive such a rating. There a several factors to know to determine the efficiency of your solar panels. Aside from how much incoming sunlight a solar panel receives and how much it is converted into usable energy, a solar panel’s composition plays a role in its efficiency.
Inside Counts
Researchers and manufacturers acknowledge that when designing and producing solar panels, what is on the inside matters. The materials used such as monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and cadmium telluride impact how light converts into electricity.
Puerto Rico Solar Panel Inside
How the wires are organized and the amount of light reflected away from a solar panel also affects its efficiency If more sunlight is reflected than needed, this can highly affect the brand’s rating and efficiency. In conclusion, be curious and ask your contractor about the brand, what materials are used, and how efficient your panels supposed to be for future purposes.
Puerto Rico Solar Panel
Each solar company has a different manufacturer or solar panel supplier. It is important to know which solar panel brand the company you hire deals with and so, you may want to steer clear of those whose brand is not even legitimate. Be sure to know what brand you are going to have installed and whether their efficiency rate is average or good.
Importantly, General Maintenance only uses the most respected brands in the world. Additionally, our technicians are able to install a wide variety of systems to fit your needs.
While the majority of panels range between 15% to 20%, the most efficient brand today has a high rating of 22.8%. That brand is SunPower, followed by the company LG who has a rate of 21%. Notice how the difference in ratings is very thin or almost the same.
For example, the brand REC Solar also has a 21.7% efficiency rate and CSUN has one of 21.2%. Although these brands battle for who has a more efficient solar panel, it is important to keep an eye on which brand has a constant high-efficiency rating. Setting a maximum efficiency record doesn’t always mean that their product will always maintain that rate over time.
Cost vs Production
While a solar panel brand like SunPower has a high-efficiency rating, its high cost could deter buyers on a budget. These units are a customer favorite for those whose interest is efficiency. Also, having a high rating will mean that the solar panels are more expensive. If your goal is to maximize the amount of electricity produced to pay less on your utility bill, choose a higher efficiency solar panel. If you are torn whether to get a certain amount of solar panels, your roof space is limited, a higher efficient solar panel is a better choice.
As you might already know, solar panels with a better rating than their counterparts tend to cost more. Before going forward with the most efficient solar panel, analyze whether in the future you will save up more than you spent. The ultimate goal is to eliminate that utility bill completely.
Puerto Rico Solar Panel
Nonetheless, having expensive solar panels would be a waste of investments if you still have to pay Puerto Rico’s high power utility bill. In the end, researchers’ and manufacturers’ goal is all about converting sunlight into electricity, and thus, solar panel efficiency is going to keep evolving over the course of the years. Contact General Maintenance today to receive a free estimate on our next Puerto Rico Solar Panel