Today's solar market is dynamic, evolving and chaotic. Therefore, doesn't matter if you are a purchasing manager, an end customer making a decision of buying or a manager of a large scale PV project, this article will be helpful for you.
I am on the other end of this process for +7 years already, I have worked for 3 international companies as a regional manager of sales and have sold several MW in more than 15 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Let's dive into the information now, what you have to check when you are buying PV products:
- What is the product guarantee? Obvious right? But beware, the guarantee offered is often just a matter of marketing, making you pay more for a guarantee which is fluid and there is almost never a third party insurance of it. Meaning, if you have a product problem in 5 or 10 years, the company that sold to you doesn't exist any more, or even has changed its name, it's no more responsible for the guarantee of the product sold 10 years earlier and there is no third party either. So, the only thing you did different, was paying more for some words typed in the data sheet and invoice. Any panel production is either quality controlled or not, if controlled all of them will work fine for 30 years and if something on one product goes wrong, easiest way is to buy and change one panel. It will cost much less than paying a factory guarantee which is fluid and non-reliable.
- What are the connectors used? Yes you prefer to pay more and get original MC4 connector PV panels. Sometimes, compatible connectors will work just fine, but this is a real risk, which is better to avoid, as it costs maybe 1-2 Eur/panel and your project becomes safe and sound for many years.
- Where is the product made? If you are concerned about made in China products, beware. There is again a matter of pure marketing that makes you pay almost triple of the price. Even if PV panel is 100% assembled in Europe or other countries outside of China, all production facility is made from Chinese made machinery and all components of your PV panel still coming from China... So not possible at this point to be environment friendly... The only real difference still will be the price. Still, the only alternative might be made in Asia products, more specifically made in Turkey, as they have many products and machinery produced in turkey as well.
- Are you buying from distributor? You gain time and lose money. Are you buying from manufacturer? You economize money and lose (a lot of) time. Or maybe you buy from NineSolar trade, the only trading company on the solar market today, which is same price as manufacturer+transparent commissionning and +5 days more maximum, compared to distributor delivery.
- Have you visited the factory that produces your products during the production? If no, you have high risk to get a minus sorted product. Many times, it is impossible to check product's real yield in the fields. The biggest symptom of minus sorting is the best attractive price, lower than any competition. Here, you lose a lot of money. As sunlight always fluctuates and same goes for environment temperature, is becomes impossible to check panels' real production vs the production mentioned in the invoice. On the other hand you can rely on NineSolar Trade expertise and avoid minus sorting successfully. You are also welcome to register on our very first online factory tour, that will start in April, in Turkish high standard PV panel factory.
