There are many things to consider when choosing a PV installer, however, few of us think about the solar panels themselves. You’ll no doubt want to know whether the installer has an excellent reputation for workmanship, will the design be tailored to your specific requirements and is the company an established business?
When it comes to the solar panels themselves, we advise you to consider their provenance; are they ethically sourced; is the manufacturing process sustainable; are the people who make them being paid and treated fairly? If the solar panels are made in China, this may not be the case.
The UK Foreign Affairs Committee is calling for a ban on solar panels imported from China’s Xinjiang Province, an area known to use forced labour of Uyghur Muslims. Around 45 per cent of the world’s supply of polysilicon – a core component in solar panels – comes from this region.
Our preferred brands REC mainly and for integrated systems, Eurener, are manufactured in Singapore and Spain respectively using polysilicon sourced outside China. They offer a warranty of 25 years on workmanship, defects and linear performance output, longer than many others on the market.
REC have a state of the art, energy efficient manufacturing facility in Singapore, where the polysilicon for the cell wafers is sourced from Germany. Their modules are completely lead-free, so a perfect choice if you are concerned about the environmental impact of solar panel disposal at the end of their life cycle. The REC solar panels have one of the lowest warranty claims rate in the solar industry and are one of the few companies happy to make that data public.
The established Spanish brand Eurener has two factories in Spain with all components sourced in the EU. What’s more, localised production means the solar PV has a lower carbon footprint. Eurener’s commitment to European manufacturing ensures a high standard of quality, sustainability, and ethical practices.
With Solarkinetics you can rest assured that the products we install are ethically sourced, manufactured to the highest quality, in accordance with the strictest environmental standards and robustly tested.
At the moment, the global economic situation has led to overcapacity of supply in the solar industry, the outcome of which has meant huge price drops across the board. Why wait for prices to climb again, contact us today for a quote. Soon you’ll be saving money on your electricity bills, generating your own electricity and reducing your carbon footprint.