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<DIV>Hilton,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> I have not been experiencing anything
unusual in failure rates.....of course I have not caved to the up-front lower
cost tease of Chinese PVs and have only sold USA made PVs built by manus in biz
for decades. This choice has lost me only a few customers, maybe now they
will come back. It seems interesting to me that you would mention 3
Chinese companies as 'first tier'. When I think of first tier I think of
companies that have been around for much longer than that.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> You are absolutely right though, as
an industry, "we" need to identify this problem and deal with it now, like now,
lest we go the path of solar thermal in the 80's. Possibly the solar
bandwagon has become overloaded?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Bill</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=hiltondier@gmail.com href="mailto:hiltondier@gmail.com">Hilton Dier
III</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, May 29, 2013 6:08
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [RE-wrenches] Defective
modules</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Greetings
wrenches,<BR><BR>I'm sure many of you have seen this article in the New York
Times: <A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/business/energy-environment/solar-powers-dark-side.html?hp&_r=1&">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/business/energy-environment/solar-powers-dark-side.html?hp&_r=1&</A><BR><BR>I
have already gotten an email from a panicked client asking about canceling his
project.<BR><BR>First question: Has anybody dealt with defective modules
lately, and if so, what brands?<BR>Second question: How much does this affect
first-tier manufacturers (Trina, Suntech, Yingli...) and how much of this is
"no-name" brands?<BR>Third question: Is this restricted to a particular
technology such as thin film?<BR><BR>And the big question: How do we deal with
this? I can imagine the fossil fuel and nuclear industries promoting this
story with enthusiasm.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR><BR>Hilton<BR></FONT><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
Hilton Dier III
Renewable Energy Design
Partner, Solar Gain LLC
453 East Hill Rd.
Middlesex, VT 05602
</PRE>
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