Buying panels from China | DIY Solar Power Forum

Thanks for the pointers.

Sounds as though ‘buying PV panels from China’ is on the very early stages and not quite as evolved as ‘buying LiFePO4 cells from China’.

And yes, the tarrifs need to be understood since they can wipe out any savings (which is the purpose of tarrifs, no?)

But I’ll start following these threads to hopefully get some solid recommendations on proven suppliers.

I’m only looking for 72-cell panels, not 96-cell, but if the tarrifs+shipping don’t double the effective price, there might be some interesting options to consider...

I think one factor is that the prices for panels sold in the US are not so high compared to panels sold in china. There are cheap sources of panels here in the US. So the potential cost savings generally isn't as great as it is with LFP.

Another difference between lifepo4 and pv panels is that, all lifepo4 cells come from China and Chinese companies regardless of where you buy them or what price you pay, so the logic of buying straight from China is pretty straightforward. But PV panels are manufactured in and out of China and as far as I know you can't go on alibaba and buy name brand panels like you can with LFP cells. Its plausible that they may be getting their solar cells from the same sources as name brand guys, the panels might or might not even be manufactured in some of the same factories, who knows. But there is a lot that is unknown (to me), and the upside is less than with LFP.

There is also the issue of warranty since consumer PV panels often have a 20 or 30 year warranty, there is considerable advantage to buying in your home market.

This is just my speculation, I've never really considered or looked into Chinese PV panels. Its certainly worth exploring.

But its going to be hard to beat the value of places like santansolar.com I thought I was going to have to buy panels online and have them shipped. This was not a China source, just places in the U.S.A. The shipping cost was prohibitive. I finally started digging and found a source here in Colorado that I could pick the panels up from. That source got a little screwy so I bailed on that deal and kept digging. I ended up find a source even closer with a price that was way better. I ended up using CED Greentech. They had my panels waiting on a pallet and loaded them right into my truck.

If you're not finding what you want, you're either not looking hard enough or you live in very strange place.

These days, panels are very close to a commodity. But what fits your specifications and budget, but don't be so set in your specifications that you don't look around. I was aiming for four 200 watt panels, but ended up with four 320 watt panels for less.