Recommendation for flexible solar panels

[mrybas]

Hi,
I’m looking to add about 500W of Flexible solar panels (the kind that lay flush on deck and can be walked on).
Any recommended brands?

[mrybas]

I was thinking about getting 4 of these, but a friend said the thin panels only last a couple years? True?

[dougweibel]

I put those SunPower panels on my previous boat's bimini, but as you might expect from the word "previous" I don't know how they held up in the long run. In the year from when I installed them till when I sold that boat they were great.

My rationale in purchasing those panels was that even the best semi-flexible panels wouldn't hold up all that many years when mounted on a fabric bimini and the SunPower panels were a lot cheaper than other brands.

I placed some fairly stiff corrugated plastic panels under the solar panels to minimize their flexing and improve their life as recommended by E-Marine Systems. They pretty well insist on selling you the support panels if you tell them you are mounting the solar panels on a fabric surface.