Solar Panels: Battle of the Brands

If you and your neighbor each have a 5kw solar PV system that produces 20 kilowatt-hours of usable electricity per day, do you care if your neighbor has Evergreen solar panels while you have Suntech? And more to the point: should you care? Solar panel branding is becoming a hotter issue than ever. What has traditionally been a commodity is now becoming a consumer product, or at least that’s what some major manufacturers would like to see happen.

Some solar panel manufacturers are starting to break into the branding game more seriously than in the past. Building brand awareness and trust among residential consumers has been low priority, but with a tougher economy and an expanding residential solar market, that’s changing. How do you go from a commodity to a consumer product?

Installer networks.

By partnering directly with installers to provide cheaper bulk rates for their solar panels, solar panel manufacturers hope to bypass distributors and forge stronger connections with the people in the industry who deal most closely with the end consumer. The Wall Street Journal’s look at this branding race noted that there are already some brands dominating certain markets. SunPower is one of these, whose monocrystalline solar panels are the single most efficient panel on the market (not always necessary, and yes, the price tag is high). With nearly 30 percent of the California market in Q3, they’re doing something right–and they are certainly one of the most recognizable names in panels today. The WSJ provided some food for thought with words from the CEO of installer and solar leasing innovator SolarCity:

“Because Suntech, Sharp and all these panel manufacturers have such great technology and the quality is superb, it doesn’t really matter which module you use,” said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity, a large installer based in Foster City, Calif., with more than 460 employees….”I can’t tell you the difference between a Suntech and a Sharp panel,” he said.

Which brings us to the answer to the hypothetical question above: No. All else being equal, brand doesn’t matter. But “all things being equal” extends to quite a few factors when we’re talking about solar panels. Final cost, energy output (of the total system, since you can use fewer high-wattage panels or more lower-wattage panels to achieve the same goal), manufacturer’s warranty, and suitability for your site conditions are the major factors to consider. There are panels out there better suited for partial shade conditions, standing seam metal roofs, limited installation space, and so on, so to some extent yes, which panels your installer chooses play a big role in the success of your installation.

Solar installers should be willing to explain their choices of panels to you. You have a right to know. But if you’re dealing with equivalent system outputs in quotes you receive, at equivalent costs, and the equipment comes with equivalent warranties? Don’t overthink it.