Quote:
Originally Posted by lotech
My test in no way scientific and the sales ad fooled me, I don't see what I expected to see that's why, further more I am far from northern hemisphere. The disappointment won't stop me to get deeper into CIGS or the like, non Silicon is the future.
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I wasn't trying to criticise your trial. It's always worth checking things out for yourself, if you have the time and money to spare
. If you know much about engineering there are some really good books about the science involved that you might also find interesting, if you dont know much about the science behind the technology it's well worth taking the time to find out, if you feel like it. There seems to be alot of misinformation flying around which is a shame because it makes it even harder to discuss the advantages of various technologies when people feel that they have already been misled.
Things about CIGS that do seem to be true are that they are cheaper to produce than silicon photovoltaic panels and they seem to be exhibiting a better thermal performance. (Electricity production doesn't decline as much when the temperature of the CIGS panel increases). Thermal performance inprovements might be an area where they have advantage over silicon cells in hotter countries. A couple of other things that you might lie to consider with your CIGS panel is that there seems to be a degredation period after the initial instalation, so it might be worth leaving your panels set up for a longer time period before you make your comparison and comparing their performance during the warmest parts of the day. You might find that your CIGS panel performs better when it's more sunny. It might also be worth checking any information you got with your CIGS panel to see if the conversion efficiencies/output data are given for the period before or after the initial degredation in performance. Also, you have the cells and I dont, so it would be great if you could prove the information I've been given wrong
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If you want to try and find out a bit more about the technologies I can try to answer your questions as best as I can (and refer you to things that might help you make your own mind up). CIGS is only just becoming mainstream so there might be a few changes etc in the short term and it might take people a while to become used to the technology. What are you planning to do with your photovoltaic panels now? If you own them or have access to them for longer you could try some more comparisons to check out more stuff if you wanted.
Best of luck with things, hope you stick around and keep sharing your experiences