Black silicon solar panels

[loanrangie]

I see that the black silicon panels are becoming more available and with efficiency up to 22% , anyone use these in the portable folding style ?

[DeeJay]

I bought 2x 100 amp units off Supercrap as they were on special and I am preparing for a Simpson crossing in July.
I was able to do some detailed testing a few weeks ago before the Sun disappeared in Melbourne & hasn't been seen since.
A couple of points.
The controllers supplied as standard were not MPPT & needed to replaced as the amps were jumping all over the shop. I replaced both with one 20 amp MPPT Blue solar controller & immediately got 15% more performance & much steadier current.
The supplied connectors are not up to the task & I upgraded to 50 amp Anderson plugs,( which also allowed quick controller comparisons)
The tabs tear off very easily & were replaced with Velcro Wrap.
Finally, with the Lux meter reading 9950-10,500 I was getting a max of 7 amps between the two, more regularly 5.5-6 amps so I hope that the extra sunlight in Central Australia will get them somewhere near the claimed performance...
Worth a mention is that the performance drops off dramatically if not perfectly aligned to the sun, but I'm not sure if this is relevant to all panels to that degree.
Also, I ran the battery - a 105 Amp Full River, down to 12.4 volts to maximise input charge.
Ridge Ryder Solar Blanket - 100 Watt - Supercheap Auto Australia (http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Ridge-Ryder-Solar-Blanket-100-Watt.aspx?pid=367168#Recommendations)

Cheers, David

[loanrangie]

Not the type i was talking about , there are panels that use a black silicon cell that apparently are more efficient than the common mono crytalline cells.
Under $200 for a 140 watt panel.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AULRO mobile app

[Aaron IIA]

Are you thinking about amorphous solar panels? They are reasonably black. From what I have read, amorphous solar panels are less efficient than monocrystalline solar panels, when comapring energy output per unit area.

Aaron

[loanrangie]

Are you thinking about amorphous solar panels? They are reasonably black. From what I have read, amorphous solar panels are less efficient than monocrystalline solar panels, when comapring energy output per unit area.

Aaron

Nope, black silicon. They are starting to appear on portable folding panels.

New record efficiency for black silicon solar cells (http://www.gizmag.com/black-silicon-solar-cell-efficiency-record/37579/)

[PhilipA]

I just had a look on ebay .

I cannot see how 180W equals 5amps.

Either the 180W is extremely optimistic or the 5 amps pessimistic. My guess is optimism.

My 120W mono folding will show up to 7 amps in ideal conditions after the MPPT.
Regards Philip A

[Graeme]

I cannot see how 180W equals 5amps. 5A@36V, being 2 series-connected 18V panels?

[PhilipA]

5A@36V, being 2 series-connected 18V panels?

No they are listed at 18Volt, 21.6 or thereabouts on the same spec panel.
Regards Philip A

[loanrangie]

Looking at the different sellers some list the output per panel and some list them as combined, the 140W panels i'm looking at are max 3.93A/panel so theoretically 7.86A combined.