suppliers of Sunpower e20/327 panels

[Gavin A]

in photon tests only slightly above modules at have the price you can buy anywhere

did you miss a few words out from that sentence?

 

[daytona600]

sorry gavin need a new laptop

 

[Gavin A]

in photon tests only slightly above modules at half the price you can buy anywhere
probably why they went bust

I don't think they are one of the companies that's actually gone bust, and it looks from this article as if they're actually working on a plan to bring their prices down to more competitive levels... though obviously the last year has seen some huge losses for them in the process.

I mostly agree though, both sunpower and panasonic are seriously over priced compared with panels like the Yingli 265, which are edging closer to closing the efficiency gap with them. They really need to be priced so that the returns from their systems justify the increased costs for situations where they can fitting a bigger capacity more efficient system into limited roof space makes sense.

I really don't understand sunpowers sales methods though, as in refusing to sell to none registered installers, not selling via distributors etc.

 

[daytona600]

sunpower went bust last year probaly due to there strange sales practice , they where bought by total the french oil company Very green company pv/fossil fuel
they are a very compact per Wp/M2 But double the price of modules that give 95% of the KWh as published in photon module tests
I went for jinko modules on my system & getting superb results Installer actually came to check my outputs himself as they where so high

 

[Gnarly]

sunpower went bust last year

They didnt go bust, Total just invested in them as a long term strategic thing (probably much like the reasons BP got involved in solar)
They are a premium US engineered product and know it - nice looking black panels which take considerably less area. You are right their sales practices are strange in residential, but they just seem to be trying to protect their margin by selling installed systems only. I actually did buy their panels and yes they were more expensive, it will just take a little longer to pay back! I'm quite happy with the install.

They also have a power plant business where they clearly charge a more competitive price per watt (otherwise they wouldn't get any business!)