Sunday, May 18, 2008

Discoloration of Solar Panels


One problem I've seen with our Sunpower solar panels was that about half of them have air-pockets in them. You can see this in the above picture as the light green areas on the panels.

I've let this problem fester for some time, but while at the Earthday celebration (where our efforts were acknowledged), the company who installed the panels had a booth, and I told them about the problem. They said that this was a known defect, and that Sunpower will replace the panels.

After a few days letting the wheels turn on this, Sunpower has decided to replace all of my panels, because replacing only half of them would not work out well. Apparently, my panels are now obsolete (after 2 years!). So far, they have worked as advertised, despite the defects.

Bottom line: We get a new solar panel array sometime near Labor Day this year. Will update on that when appropriate. Until then, there is plenty to write about.