Is there interest in bi-facial high wattage panels?

[cwyckham]

You may really have something here. As others have said, shading is the biggest problems that sailboats have. If you can help reduce that with your system, that's huge.


Some put panels out on davits and would benefit from the boost. Many put them on top of a bimini where there would be minimal boost. However, if a hard bimini was made around the panel so that the panel could be seen from below (it's part of the roof structure), then you could get a very significant boost.


Also, your excellent thermal coefficient is a very, very big deal for many applications.

[billsikich]

I think you could create a strong market for your products in marine applications. I'd recommend partnering with entities already in the industry, such as West Marine, who could provide guidance on market specific requirements, as well as a retail outlet.

[roverhi]

The size of the panels that you listed makes them unusable for me. Probably not economically possible for you to manufacture for the size of the possible market but a 4'x2' panel would have wider use on boats.

[peterbmetcalf]

There's extremely intense UV and other wavelengths from water, which is damaging to eyes without protection over the long term. Decks can also be extremely, unpleasantly bright if they are white - which generally they are for fiberglass boats. I'd be very interested when you start production. Make them as light as possible, and bear in mind wind resistance is undesirable unless it works for pushing the sailboat.

[Tibor]

I am currently doing a complete refit of my boat and would be very interested in buying one of these panels try but would need the measurements and the cost of the complete system delivered to Australia. A smaller panel with output of 100w would be adequate so I would be interested to explore my options. If it worked well I would be interested to buy a number of these systems to see if there would be a market for them here.

[Nauticatarcher]

We had bifacial panels mounted between our davits on a tiltable frame, worked well, just used to mount clamp on amp meter on cable and tilt to get maximum reading.

[SV Sedna]

I have a small Hitachi bifacial panel that works great. I get about 75 watts from it. IIRC it is rated at about 39w on one side and 36 on the other. I use Genasxun MPPT controllers and am very happy. I would toss my other single sided panels in a heartbeat of I could get the right sized bi-facial panels.

A glass/glass panel would be too much in terms of weight. If you could do a Glass and Tefzal option that would be super. The big cats may want to see the large format panels you have but most mono hull boats will want a smaller footprint. I think others have responded with size requests already.

What are the dimensions and power ratings of your cells?

[tinkrman69]

Hi had to signup to reply to this.

A solar cell can only put out so much with direct sun. The panels in the pic are covered with snow. great you can get reflected light from underneath. Whilst I'm cruising/living aboard If I have snow covering my panels....there is definitely something wrong.

[barnakiel]

I buy this concept. I know some boat installations would lend themselves to such use. (e.g. ours: the panels are free floating on our twin backstay).

Perhaps you should try placing your panels with a major seller like say defender or svb? Advertise some, see what happens.

One thing worth mentioning is that if your panels are say X percent more efficient they cannot be more than same X percent more expensive. If they are, people will simply buy another "cheap" panel.

If you happen to read my post and care to respond, I would love to hear how you addressed the point of back-linking: as you know there are s.c black panels available which are already some 20% more efficient than plain face linked panels. Are your panels more efficient (per area) than back linked panels (black panels)?

Cheers,
b.

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by bcboomer

Too bad they are not available. I'm in the process of designing/sourcing/building a solar bimini and 6.5 feet by 8.5 feet putting out 1000 watts sounds great. If you need a guinea pig pick me!
Seriously though, how much do they weigh?

They're 34 kg ea, which is 74.8 lbs.

The next closest panel in terms of high power and efficiency would be the Sunpower E series 425w panels, @ 56.0 lbs. (25.4 kg).

That works out to 6.68 watts/lb @ 500 watts, and 7.69 watts/lb @ 575 watts for the Sunpreme panels.

The Sunpower panels come out to 7.59 watts/lb for 425 watts.

[Pilot Rob]

Less real estate and more power, sounds good to me.

[jbpatents]

Socaldmax, per my previous response our SL are 19kg for 300W before boost.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[jbpatents]

[QUOTE=tinkrman69;1791749]Hi had to signup to reply to this.

A solar cell can only put out so much with direct sun.

Tinkerman69, that is exactly the point. Since our panels covered with snow nevertheless generated 900kwh, can you calculate the boost? No need for calculator, it's infinity since regular panels would have produced zero power. So my gut feeling based on what I see in the field is that on a boat you'll easily get 20% boost. So you buy 300W panel and you get 360W.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by jbpatents

Socaldmax, per my previous response our SL are 19kg for 300W before boost.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

Those would produce 7.18 watts/lb @ 300 watts, and 8.25 watts/lb at 345 watts, and 8.61 watts/lb at 360 watts.

Pretty attractive, as long as the price/watt is competitive.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by socaldmax

Those would produce 7.18 watts/lb @ 300 watts, and 8.25 watts/lb at 345 watts, and 8.61 watts/lb at 360 watts.

Pretty attractive, as long as the price/watt is competitive.

Racing?

I believe in the cruising context perhaps / sq area factor counts higher?

And if these are 24 V figures then I am not impressed.

b.