In India, you get two types of solar panels, according to manufactures. Indian manufactured solar panels and imported.
The importing thing while considering which one to buy; depends upon if you want to take advantage of the subsidy scheme of various state governments. Please note; subsidy is only available on panels from Indian manufacturers. To check if a subsidy is available in your state, you will have to talk to executives at your state renewable energy development authority.
As far as the quality, the top Indian brands are similar to International brand. So, here is the list
of some top Indian brands:
The price depends on the type of panel and the manufacturer. These numbers include both mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline type of panels. Also, this is the price of the panels only and does not include other things involved in setting up a solar panel system for a home.
Panels are available depending on the maximum power they produce such as 40 watts, 80 watts, 330 watts and so forth. Remember, the smaller the wattage costlier it will get. E.g. a poly-crystalline 40W panel from Luminous costs around Rs 60/W whereas 330 W costs only Rs 27/W. Another thing to note is that mono-crystalline panels are costlier than poly-crystalline panels.
So the obvious question is with all these choices which panel should you buy?
A mono-crystalline also called single crystalline silicon solar panels is more efficient in converting solar energy into electricity per sq meter area than a poly-crystalline PV. The efficiency of a mono-crystalline panels is between 17-19% whereas a poly-crystalline panels, the efficiency is between 13-17%.
Thus the space required for the same amount of wattage is less in mono-crystalline PV panel. If you have less space and you have more power requirements, then go for mono-crystalline. If you have ample space, then poly-crystalline panels will be good.
A typical requirement is of about 80-100 sq ft for 1 kW system.
Comments