AEG launches panels with 23% efficiency and a 40 year warranty

Screwdriva

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/01/26/aeg-launches-23-3-efficient-abc-solar-panel-with-40-year-warranty/

Blimey! Now that's a panel! 

EcoScruples

40 years, they're certainly confident with that one. That's almost a lifetime guarantee right there.
Wonder what the cost is?

Martyn1981

That's a lot of power from the 'new normal' 1.7m by 1.1m panels size. And I make that degradation only 0.41% pa. Read something recently about solar farms in more extreme locations, showing about 0.8% degradation for hot climes, and about 0.4% for cooler countries.

Size for size comparison to my 2011 235Wp panels (1.6m by 1m) would be ~380Wp, or an increase of 61.7% in 13yrs.
By 2012, most installs were 250Wp panels, so that's an increase of 52% in 12yrs. Or a 6kWp install for the same space as a 4kWp.

Netexporter

EcoScruples said:

40 years, they're certainly confident with that one. That's almost a lifetime guarantee right there.
Wonder what the cost is?

At least twice the price of a Jinko Tiger Neo, at a guess.

QrizB

Netexporter said:

EcoScruples said:

40 years, they're certainly confident with that one. That's almost a lifetime guarantee right there.
Wonder what the cost is?

At least twice the price of a Jinko Tiger Neo, at a guess.

My Google-fu is weak this afternoon, but AEG's current range of panels seem to be 30-40% more expensive than Jinko et al.

Whether it's worth paying that for a 40-year guarantee is debateable, but for eg. difficult-to-access sites it could be worth it.

Netexporter

You get 30 years on the Jinko. It's N-type and in the same efficiency ballpark.

QrizB

I do wonder about the value of long guarantees, other than as a marketing aid to the manufacturers.

I've got eleven 247 watt panels on my roof. They've been there for 12 years and, barring acts of God, they're staying there for another 13 (to the end of my FIT). But if they go wrong, somehow (eg. a Texas-style hailstorm), I can spend £900 and buy eleven 400+ watt panels to replace them. That's a 60% bigger array and another 1500kWh a year. At current export prices the extra generation would pay for the panels in four years.

Netexporter

I do wonder about the value of long guarantees, other than as a marketing aid to the manufacturers.

It may be more relevant to commercial solar operators as the degradation rate is a more significant component in the overall return than it is for domestic arrays.

mickyduck55

QrizB said:

I do wonder about the value of long guarantees, other than as a marketing aid to the manufacturers.

I've got eleven 247 watt panels on my roof. They've been there for 12 years and, barring acts of God, they're staying there for another 13 (to the end of my FIT). But if they go wrong, somehow (eg. a Texas-style hailstorm), I can spend £900 and buy eleven 400+ watt panels to replace them. That's a 60% bigger array and another 1500kWh a year. At current export prices the extra generation would pay for the panels in four years.

In a similar situation 17 X 235 Watt panels installed 2011, I could now fit another two on my roof as I had my chimney removed to enable the fitting of my pressurised hot water cylinder in my airing cupboard.  With the extra couple of panels I could almost double my generation capacity  Of course I'm hoping the existing ones stay put for quite a while.

Waywardmike

QrizB said:

I do wonder about the value of long guarantees, other than as a marketing aid to the manufacturers.

I've got eleven 247 watt panels on my roof. They've been there for 12 years and, barring acts of God, they're staying there for another 13 (to the end of my FIT). But if they go wrong, somehow (eg. a Texas-style hailstorm), I can spend £900 and buy eleven 400+ watt panels to replace them. That's a 60% bigger array and another 1500kWh a year. At current export prices the extra generation would pay for the panels in four years.

Exactly this.  Had 16 250w panels for nearly 10 years and they take up about 2/3rds of my almost south facing roof.  I could replace them with 10 400w panels (retaining FIT) and then put another 10 400w+ on the rest of the roof on a separate inverter, more than doubling installed capacity.  10 years from now, would I then be replacing all 20 for even smaller more efficient panels, making the 20/30/40 year guarantee pretty much worthless?

My system has been paid off for years though, so currently it's all money in the bank, I'm reluctant to go back to the beginning even if it would pay for itself in <10 years.