Written by Chris Reilly
WHAT EXACTLY IS A “TIER 1” SOLAR PANEL?
You’ve probably heard by now, confidently stated by a solar electric salesman, something like: “We use only Tier 1 solar panels”. As in, “That pretty much settles everything regarding your quality concerns”. Uh, not quite…
Perhaps the best place to start is by explaining what “Tier 1” is not: A performance or quality control measure. The designation “Tier 1” simply denotes a solar panel manufacturer as having been proven to achieve a measure of volume and number of projects, with those same projects having been successfully funded and completed by another given number of different bank or finance entities. Who currently rates as a “Tier 1” manufacturer is maintained by the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which is a quarterly market index tool used by prospective investors in these same companies, as well as those considering direct purchase and use of its products in a project of their own.
The basics are this: “Tier 1” designated companies must have provided their own in-house manufactured brand of panels to six different projects that have been non-recourse financed by six different banks in the last two years. The non-recourse stipulation is important because that means a bank has taken the risk of the modules failing. In addition to the origin of manufacture and number of different projects and banks having been involved, there is a total volume of manufacture threshold which originally stood at 1 GW. 1 gigawatt = 1,000 million watts, or approximately 2.9 million solar modules…which of course is a significant amount of solar modules.
SO, IS “TIER 1” IRRELEVANT?
Not at all! While often misused by uninformed (or worse, misleading) salespeople to project a sense of higher quality, it helps to remember that the term is meant to distinguish between higher volume (and thus proven, at least in terms of financial stability) solar manufacturers and the hundreds of others in the industry. One of the key features of a high-volume, proven manufacturer is its performance and product warranty, typically being of 25 years (product) and 10 years (performance). While nearly all manufacturers boast warranties such as this, if a company with 1 GW or more of product already in the field has been financed without recourse by several different banks, it stands to reason that their warranty is of higher value than that of a no-name, turn-key fabrication plant. Choosing the right solar panels can be a tricky, but not impossible task. The single best questions to ask are:
● How long has the company been in business?
● How many GW of solar panels have they installed?
● What kind of warranties do they offer?
● Has there been any news of major failures or shortcomings in the field?
The bottom line on “Tier 1” solar panels is this: It’s as good a starting point as any, and indeed helps consumers weed out the many hundreds of others who have recently entered the burgeoning solar market. And remember that you can rely on the Solar Plus team, who has worked for many years with the best products in the industry.
Contact us today and we’ll be glad to discuss this and much more about the opportunity you may have to finally “Go Solar”!