[RE-wrenches] American modcos

[Solarguy]

1Soltech, like many PV mfgrs use mono-crystalline cells made somewhere else.
They formerly used, among others, Qcells wafers but have moved away from
those presumably because of potential availability problems due to Qcells
financial issues. The last pallet load I picked up at their facility about 2
weeks ago, I was told, contained Sanyo cells. 

1Soltech also assembles and rebrands modules for other companies. Those
company will spec whatever grade of components meet their standards which
are not necessarily the same as 1Soltech. 

And like Dan I have observed their hand-assembling process being completely
in house, with the exception of the cell production. And hand-built, in my
opinion, is superior to fully automated robotics; the robots only account
for faster production and not necessarily higher quality products. 

 

Jim Duncan

North Texas Renewable Energy Inc

 <http://www.ntrei.com/> www.ntrei.com 

NABCEP PV 031310-57

TECL-27398

 <mailto:ntrei at 1scom.net> ntrei at 1scom.net 

817.917.0527

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of
penobscotsolar at midmaine.com
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 6:49 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] American modcos

 

We have our first order in for Helios 250 watt modules. I have been reticent
to sell Chinese modules while my surrounding competition is selling them
regularly. I am not against the principle of a world market, but I do not
like the lack of environmental regulation in many countries.

It does seem that Helios are truly made in America. We sized a very large
off grid system with 1SolTech modules as well, but the customer did not go
aheadwith the installation. I dealt directly with them in Texas, but never
got confirmation that they are made completely in America. Thatdoesn't mean
they aren't, just that I didn't ask for confirmation....my bad.... I am
currently designing a 500 kw system using Helios modules. Our first
(previously mentioned) installation using them will be in late August-early
Sept. and will comment more then.

 

Daryl DeJoy

NABCEP Certified PV installer

Penobscot Solar Design

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20120723/d7df01d1/attachment-0003.html>