Originally posted by SunEagle
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While the thin film modules may cost less than crystalline modules, in the PV array you have to use more thin film modules to power the inverter than crystalline. That equates to more labor, racking, combiners, wiring etc. These are both ground mount systems also. I am not so sure the large 1-2 megawatt systems are much cheaper if any cheaper when going with thin film as opposed to crystalline. As far as the customer that I was referencing, they put a meg in and followed with another meg a few years after and used thin film on both. This customer owns their system and was initially more concerned on the ROI and overall performance for their area in the long run. Both systems are producing very well and the oldest is around 10 years old. They have had zero module failures in this time frame. Only some inverter power supplies failed due to the lack of a good grounding system which has since been fixed with no reported errors since the repair. Also I never said that the modules were better or would not fail in the heat. I said that the thin film arrays produce more annually than crystalline in the desert and hotter climates. So, in a sense and in that climate the modules actually are a better fit for overall production. and these modules are not first solar.
"Most all commercial Solar Panel farms are built by Venture Capitalist looking to make a fast buck. They use public funding to pay for a large percentage of the cost. They use Thin Film panels to keep cost low. As soon as the plant is built it is sold for a nice profit. It now becomes the problem of the new owner to replace the panels when they fail in 5 to 7 years. That is what happens to thin film.
I would not brag much about First Solar. In 2008 they were worth $300/share, today less than $50. No solar panel manufacture is making money. "
Yeah for some projects that may be true, but not for all of them. And not for the one that I was referring to. And not all of the modules fail in 5-7 years either. The most failures in thin film that I have seen are mostly the Chinese made modules. Oh, and I am not bragging about first Solar either, that was the topic of the thread from the beginning and why I was writing about what I have seen with that brand. I personally think that they are making some of the better thin film modules in the market currently. It does not matter in this conversation what the company shares are worth, that is a little off topic in my opinion. When I said that they were a company to look out for I meant that they are making a pretty good module and have come a long way and are ahead of most thin film manufacturers currently.
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