Talk:Solar panel

Business-side info

I had previously added some business information on solar module manufacturers, as well as a link to a global directory of solar module manufacturers, solar module manufacturing equipment suppliers, and solar module installation companies. The information was taken down by someone who hadn't actually reviewed the validity of the information but was deleting based on the fact that I posted up several links to ENF.

On the suggestion of one of person that removed the information, I am submitting suggested comments/links here in the hope that other editors will evaluate the relevance and resubmit it to the main page:

Photovoltaic Panel (Module) Brands

There are hundreds of photovoltaic panel (module) brands in the world, and numbers are increasing fast due to the low entry barriers. The bare minimum a company needs to become a manufacturers is a laminating machine and some soldering irons (for a manual production line). This has lead to a particularly strong explosion in new panel manufacturers in China, although the majority of Chinese companies do not have the certification most western companies require (in April 2007, only 19 Chinese panel manufacturers held IEC, TUV or UL certification).

A 2007 global survey of photovoltaic installation companies ^[1] identified the best panel manufacturers to be:

No.1 - SunPower Corporation (USA)
No.2 - Schott Solar (Germany)
No.3 - SolarWorld (Germany)

The company with the best quality panels was identified as Sanyo (Japan) and the best value for money panels was from Suntech Power (China).

== External links ==

Kit Temple 13:56, 2 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

^ {{cite journal title = Global Brand Survey of Photovoltaic Installation Companies journal = ENF url = http://www.enf.cn/magazine/issue9/brand.html accessdate = 13/04/2007 }}

[ENF-1] {{cite journal title = Global Brand Survey of Photovoltaic Installation Companies journal = ENF url = http://www.enf.cn/magazine/issue9/brand.html accessdate = 13/04/2007 }}

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