Seems like its the right time for then one who want to go for CIS.
Are these Saint Gobain CIS products readily available in Kerala? Or is it easy to get from Chennai without any hefty sum?
No need to go for Hefty sum. The price remains same. Transport charges will be the difference say 1Re per watt. Kerala many CIS installation has been done by our Partner company. Even the Shell panels are listed and eligible for PWD projects.
Is CIS thin film technology?? And i was under the impression Shell had sold off its solar companies ,(read it on Top Gear long ago) maybe its a diff owner using the Shell name? Are these panels being manufactured here in India?
There are many thin film manufacturers, but it is proven products only from 3 - Namely Shell, Saint Gobain, and First Solar from US. In this scientifically promising technology is CIS from Shell and Saint Gobain. The impression that Shell is no more having solar is not true, since I am dealing with Shell for the past 3 years. CIS is the most proven and promising Thin Film technology available. And it is not possible anyone to make a Thin Film, as in the case of Crystalline. Hence the initial investment for Thin Film production needs both Extreme scientific knowledge and Investment. Pricewise they are very less as the production cost is fraction of Crystalline. The main ingrdiaent - Crystal is the cost killler for Crystalline product. You see a less priced Crystalline panel it the crystal is from Some unknown chinese or heavily priced Crystalline if it is Crystal from Bosh etc.
As far i have noticed thin film only survived on the market due to low manufacturing costs & some of the companies use to get huge benefits from the EXIM banks, I remember one of TATAs big projects in Rajasthan using thin film panels from a company in USA,as a result they got loan for these panels at throw away rates.
Thats First Solar. The push from US is true and I am against that. Regardless of this push from US, Germany based SG and Japan based Shell has done quite a lot of installations in India (MW range as well), indeed despite the push from USA first solar couldn't make a strong foot hold here, because In India solar is not in the hands of big players instead it is the Integrators, as the market is yet to mature.
Solar tech is still not cost effective,i know this cos i have a friend who owns a certain MW power plant on the Karnataka Andhra border as you may know its a high solar irradiance zone. And i could sense profits are going to go downhill cos the performance falls year by year until the 20th year.
May I Know the brand and make of the panel? As I told very early in this post that there are many superstitions, wrong conceptions and Spurious products available in the market. Indeed with the proven products it is huge success everywhere else - Ex: Germany, even in India.
He had leased some land for a plant in Tamil Nadu but was held up cos of the substation being too far away & you have to pay for the connection all the way to the substation & power loss before billing too.
That is the case for any other power sources (Coal, Hydro, Wind etc). This doesn't have anything to do with Solar Tech.
So it really does not make sense price wise yet but for homes which are in the middle of no where & have unreliable power, can go the solar way & no matter what the sun will be up everyday.I myself am hunting for a good solar inverter,liked the Borg energy system but backed out.
For your information, there are many MW projects right now going around here. Even with CIS many are going, there are customers who did once and expanding to next MW projects as well. It is all whether one buys a lemon or orange. We do retrofit who fall in to the trap of less price and bought a lemon. For the electronics go for Proven Indian Made, as they are tried setups for Indian power conditions, example: Statcon. Here also one catch there are many in the market with spurious unreliable products. We, though having our own product, did many field experiments with many brands and now settled with most reliable products.
I have limited knowledge on solar panels but can give some pointers from discussion with my friend who has plant & other sources
- Position solar panel facing south always as most sunlight is from the south in our hemisphere
Yes. But there are other techniques also. This is the most simplest no brainer solution and we also prefer this otherwise any design challenge posed or any Tracking system used.
- Do not place solar panels in tuff to reach places on your roof,you need to clean it once in a while & keep if dust free,bird droppings etc or its life shall reduce(will mention in next point)
Yes it is good to have it is reachable place not due to maintanance, but to help in future if you need to replace or relocate in those cases. But It is not a cause to worry. Just a occasional water wash or Spray of water with foam is enough. Make sure the water spray reach the place.
- Make sure all through the day that no shadow of a tree or anything falls on the solar panel as the sun moves from east to west as this can cause degradation(think its called shadow degradation) & the panel can fail or not perform to its level.
Yes Before designing your panel mounting you have to observe these things. But This is one of the place where CIS scores it's point. Shadow character of CIS is far surpassing than Crystalline. Yes the Crystalline panel will completely stop working even a small portion is under shadow, where CIS is not. There is nothing like Shadow degradation.
- Life of panel can differ from place to place depending on intensity of the sun(for example- A panel in Rajasthan will loose out at 20 years where as in a less sunny region would stay for 28 years.)
Yes, This called temperature Co efficient. This is worst is Crystalline panels. Whereas CIS is no sayer in this area too. That is why you see 7 year product warranty from Shell and 10 Year from SG.
Also CIS tend to work to its 100% capacity even more than that (5 to 10% more) it right environment levels are reached. Whereas Crystalline max capacity is 90%.
- Dont be under the misconception that a 1000 watts of solar panels means you will get same energy constantly,at best you would see 350 watts depending on panel & sunlight.
No. Not true We do design for Off grid system where there is no Utility Grid or Electricity. In those cases we calculate 6 to 7 hours full capacity production in the case of CIS and 4 hours in the case of Crystalline. The reason is CIS is proven to perform and pull the trousers of Crystalline under any conditions. For your information our Solar Water pumps starts right from 6:30AM till 5:30PM (yesterday in Dindigul I got this information told to me by my customer).
It is a good start Dear Prads, I would share as much knowledge I have gathered. As Earlier I told there are lot many misconceptions about Solar Tech, so first we should get our science correct and then do the product filtering.