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We wrote a column asking why the 25-year warranty for solar components was such a priority for solar industry manufacturers. The reaction from readers was wide and varied. Our first contributor is Michael Gumm, founder of SolarPower Restoration Systems. Grumm makes the connection between solar-system warranties and roofing warranties.
It seems the 25-year warranty is really based on solar financing. In the past, to make the numbers work, you needed to extend the performance life of the system for 25 to 30 years. I come from the roofing industry, where most roofs rarely make it to the 25 or 30 year roof warranty end. The average low slope commercial roof service life is closer to 18 years. It has never made sense to issue a warranty that long.
Warranties, for the most part, exist to protect the manufacturer, not the customers — and it’s an effective sales/marketing tool. As a consultant for the roofing industry, I remind my clients that the big print gives consumers certain rights, and the small print takes away rights. A product owner is actually better off without a warranty because commercial law has implied serviceability of a product.
In the case of 25-year warranties, many owners will forget, misplace or have new personnel who will not know about the warranty by the time it is up. I have had roof owners (on several occasions) want a new roof to replace a bad roof, only to discover they had a roof warranty they had forgotten.
In solar, we are dealing with changing technology. How will you replace a solar module in 10, 20 or 30 years if the module is no longer in production or the manufacturer is in business? For my part, I tell my solar clients to purchase extra modules and store them in a safe place.
Let’s be clear: Solar panels have always lasted longer than roofs. It would make more sense to have a solar array in sync with the roof service life because it’s difficult to design and maintain a 25-year roof system. In addition, there’s the question of what you do on an existing roof that has an already limited service life.
The cost of solar now means that solar financing (in some cases) does not need the 25-year time frame. With some of my solar manufacturer clients, getting ready to release flexible solar panels to be bonded directly to the roof membrane, I have suggested they develop a shorter life solar panels,that is more in tune with the roof service life. What I’m telling them is create 10-year or 15-year solar panels instead of a 25-year flexible module.
Jon C. Fox says
Rising cost of copper means that when designing a system, higher voltage will save on copper wire costs since thinner wire can be used. Hence the constant trend of solar modules to get bigger with more cells so voltages can be higher. But that means that if an older panel fails, finding a replacement gets more and more difficult with each passing year. It is in the manufacturers best interest to try to wriggle out of making good on their warranty. That’s what has happened to us – one Yingli 60 cell panel has a partial failure among 24 other identical Yingli panels. They refuse to make good on the warranty, citing only the lower open circuit voltage as within spec, even though the voltage under load is down by 40%. But even if they did make good on the warranty, I expect all they would do is send us a few $ which does little to solve the problem of finding a replacement that will fit into the array.
Of course, the solution is simple and similar to the problem faced by EV car manufacturers and users: standardization. For cars, the fight over what charging plug to use goes on and on. Reminds one of the fight long ago between VHS and Beta. If solar panels were designed to fit together as a standard, perhaps modular approach would be possible. Since we’ve already seen several generations of solar panels go through this, it is time for some kind of standard to be adopted. Snap-together panels? Edge connectors? Or would standardization and modularity and backwards-compatibility only limit further technological development, such as the perovskite/silicon composite panels now being developed?
Mark Pendergraft says
Well I am The C.E.O of Kosher Solar and we will be Offering Lifetime Warranties for our 100% Off Grid Systems.
johnny_test says
Wow! this writer totally misses the point. I sell a product with a 25 year warranty and a 50 year life span. Who wouldn’t want the longest warranty they can get when making this kind of investment?! Especially when it’s transferable, can increase your home value, and cut your electrical expenses. We’re talking about going clean after all…so forget about matching roof warranties. I encounter many roofs these days can out last the owner. And if it can’t it’s very easy and inexpensive to remove your solar system to re-roof. Thanks for listening…www.facebook.com/hjosolar
SpiffySolarDotCom says
Personal experience has revealed the following two unexpected PV solar issues, related to roofing and equipment warranties.
When solar is placed on a rooftop, it becomes an integral part of that roof—whether it is “integrated” or not. Almost no one considers (or is discussing) the additional cost of removal and replacement of solar to the re-roofing bill. It is most likely that roof replacement will occur at least once in the life of the system. As you point out, asphalt shingles do not last as long as their nameplates imply. A four to six thousand dollar bill for R&R of a conventional system eats up an awful lot of electric generation. Potential solar owners would be wise to include this in their savings calculations, and I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find a residential solar installer willing to point this out to their customers.
Another growing issue, which the industry is reluctant to discuss (and manufacturer warranties do not cover), is that of wildlife nesting beneath residential PV installations and the damage it entails. The noise and filth of pigeons can be quite an irritant as well as causing damage to the home. The real damage comes from squirrels or other rodents who may choose to gnaw on wires, connectors and, yes, even junction boxes on the back of the modules. This is becoming a significant problem, to homeowners who encounter it, as well as for third-party owners. These companies have begun adding this factor into their warranty and cost considerations.
Awareness and careful accounting can solve the first problem. The second is best solved by deterring entry through physical barriers, installed in such a way that doesn’t damage the modules—and void the manufacturer’s warranty. See one such solution at http://www.spiffysolar.com.
nanuk2 says
Depending on how much of your roof is covered in panels though, isn’t that going to increase the service life of your roof also?
Thom Westergren says
Perhaps, but the roof is replaced to remedy the worst part, not the best. So preserving or extending the life of one portion is not really relevant, is it?
thomas polich says
Few manufactured products besides solar energy
modules can be said to have 1) unusually long warranties, 2) brief histories
and 3) rapidly advancing technologies. The oldest land-based photovoltaic systems are now turning 30 years
old, but most of the current installed base is less than five years old. And ten
years from now, one can reasonably expect entirely new photovoltaic
technologies to be sold by entirely new companies.
And then there’s the question of how much all
this is going to cost. Given that many of these solar installations are only a
few years old, they’re likely to be working spectacularly well. But how will
they look in 10 years? How well will the brand new systems perform in 2036,
when their warranties finally run out?
FE says
By reducing the warranty and more importantly module life by half as you “recommend”…you are doubling the $/kWh generated. Probably moving away from “grid parity” and reducing the value of solar. I think this is an inefficient approach, not to mention unsafe. (what is the “failure” method to the the 10 year life? this is aluminum glass and silicon they should last for more than 100 years…the 25Y as it is now… is for performance, power output drops below a threshold. Manufacturers can make that threshold what ever they want it to be…industry norm is ~80% after 25years, with different ways of getting there) The claim that no warranty implies a serviceability of product under commercial law is also a terrible idea. Is commercial law even going to consider the possibility that it has a 15, 20, or 25 year warranty? on power output? no way…there are no products with warranties as long as Solar. The question is what are the track records of warranty claims and how are they handled by the warrant holder.
By the way, 25 year warranties originally had nothing to do with financing (finances yes, but not financing) it was to convince the military that the offgrid applications they were installing were a long term solution by either Siemens or Shell…now SolarWorld…in the early/mid 90s. And I think they just announced a 30 year linear warranty (the manufacturing lineage has been around since the late 70s…and I’ve been told they still maintain the warranties on the older products) I have also heard night mare stories about trying to get Warranty claims services from overseas…so it all comes down to the name on the box. One thing “Tommy Boy” got right, it is not so much the warranty, as the ethics of the company behind the name on the box.
Pel Abbott says
Solar panels are sending us data from beyond the edge of our solar system. This is not a new technology – it is tried and proven – with no moving parts other than the sometimes shoddy workmanship and cheap parts (wiring, cable ties, connections) provided by crappy contractors.
Quality solar panel manufacturers could go even longer than 25 years, and quality contractors could back them up.