My first 10kW of panels were large 500W from Hefei Yangtze, which I bought directly from China through Alibaba. I have no complaints about these panels: now more than five years later they’re still producing as they were new. While the process was pretty simple, I did have to wait three months before the panels arrived. I could track the ship at all time though, so that was fun 🙂 At the time it was worth it because of the huge price difference and the fact that those large panels weren’t really available in Europe. Nowadays, I would go with a local supplier – which I did for my additional 6kW.
Hefei Yangtze has some large panels at really good prices these days, such as 550W and larger:
https://offer.alibaba.com/cps/f4jdbq3f?bm=cps&src=saf&productId=1601229163984
https://offer.alibaba.com/cps/f4jdbq3f?bm=cps&src=saf&productId=1600268238430
Shipping might be expensive in 2024, but perhaps it can be worth it – especially when you need a lot of them. When I bought them five years ago, I ultimately paid 0.35 Euro per Watt including shipping and customs. You should be under 0.2 Euro per Watt today!
Here in Finland, I bought my additional panels from https://aurinkosahkotukku.fi/ Mine in particular were a pallet of 36 410W Astronergy panels which I split with family. These 36 available at the time of writing for 2844 Euro including VAT. Shipping is 125 Euro or so, meaning you can get these panels for about 0.2 Euro per Watt.
I decided to make my own ground mounts for them, and would still go that route today:
They’ve held up in the weather just fine, went though the coldest winter in 20 years and some of the biggest wind storms (for the area). They are essentially a ballasted mount, with six of these in the ground and a ton of gravel on top:
Cost:
- Timber to start from was 50x100x4200mm, in total 10 pieces used at a cost of €11 a piece delivered.
- It uses 6 concrete posts (60kg each) and accompanying M20 pillar shoes, for a cost of €30 each delivered.
- Additionally some fasteners and L brackets, maybe for a total of €30, probably less since they were bought in bulk
- The L brackets were also used to secure the solar panels themselves to the frame
Total: €320 including VAT and delivery. Time to build: a few hours; leveling the ground not included.
The new panels are on an extension to the car port; they act as roofing material (they are glued together with silicone) and provide extra cover for the tractor and materials.
The same pillars are used in the foundation. The plastic roof above the panels is temporary – just so things stay dry. It will be replaced with something more permanent next year…