Wholesale Solar Panels
About Wholesale Solar Panels
If you are looking for a place to buy wholesale solar panels, you&#;ve found it. A1SolarStore offers PV modules from all over the world for competitive prices and with fast delivery. Let us tell you a little about the panels that we offer, how we deliver them and what kind of solar panel you might need.
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There are three most popular types of solar panels on the market: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film. Monocrystalline or mono panels are the most reliable and efficient type, polycrystalline or poly panels are slightly cheaper, but less productive. Thin-film panels or flexible panels are special in a way that they are very light and bend well.
Monocrystalline panels are easy to distinguish by the black color of the cells. Their efficiency today varies from 16 to 22%, which means that mono solar cells convert into direct current from 16% to 22% of the sunlight that they receive. That&#;s the most popular type of panels &#; in fact, most top manufacturers don&#;t even sell anything else.
Polycrystalline panels are usually blue in color. They were dominant on the market 10-20 years ago, but today they slowly fade away. The reason for this is their low efficiency: 13%-17%. Manufacturing process is cheaper than it is with mono panels, but lower cost doesn&#;t quite justify low production levels. However, some brands still like to experiment with them and include them in their product line &#; for example, Canadian Solar offers both wholesale mono and polycrystalline solar panels.
Thin-film panels are a special thing. They are cheap and very easy to install, because they bend well and their weight is small. However, they are inefficient and their lifespan is considerably shorter than the lifetime of rigid panels. Usually, a flexible panel lasts for 10-15 years. They are quite popular in mobile installations, such as RV and boat systems. Because of their low price, wholesale lightweight solar panels can be a good choice for large projects, especially when the configurations of a surface make it difficult to install rigid modules.
While China is an undeniable leader on the solar market, the companies from all over the world offer competitive solar products and we keep the best of them in stock. So what are the most popular and reliable solar panels wholesale suppliers? Let&#;s take a quick look at a few brands.
Panasonic
Panasonic is one the oldest and most well-known brands in electronics. The Japanese company gained a great reputation over the years. Photovoltaic panels from Panasonic are very high quality, packed with innovations and are known for outstanding performance at high temperatures.
Canadian Solar
The Canadian brand was founded by Chinese scientist Dr. Shawn Qu. The panels that the company offers for sale aren&#;t too expensive, but they are quite powerful and perform well in low-light conditions, such as cloudy days, winter and fall.
Trina Solar
This Chinese company competes in the Top-5 world&#;s largest solar brands. The panels from Trina Solar hold several world records for being the most efficient and productive. At the same time, the Chinese brand manages to keep the prices relatively low.
REC
Norwegian brand REC is known primarily for its premium-class residential PV modules. However, it doesn&#;t limit itself to this: the product line is wide enough that you can use wholesale REC solar panels for building a strong commercial system, small or large. REC products are known for high quality, great warranties and innovations.
JA Solar
The Chinese brand aims to be the largest solar brand in the world. JA Solar offers cheap, efficient, high output PV modules for all kinds of applications, but especially solar farms. For instance, JA Solar wholesale 500 Watt solar panels are a great choice for systems of a large scope. They feature simple design, low price and high output.
Solar panels can be very different in terms of cost, and several factors impact the final price, such as wattage, brand, type of panel, warranties, etc. Whatever brand you pick, its solar panel wholesale price is lower than retail, so you end up saving a lot. Notice that at A1SolarSolar when it comes to the wholesale price of a solar panel, we show the cost per watt rather than per pallet or per panel.
Generally, solar market prices can be described like this: Asian panels, especially Chinese ones, are the cheapest ones. The most popular brands here are JA, LONGI, Trina Solar, ZNShine and many others. Asian PV modules are known for high efficiency and often provide very high output, which makes them probably the most popular choice when it comes to wholesale solar panels for sale for systems of a larger scope. However, their warranties for products are lower and quality issues are more frequent in comparison to US and European companies.
US manufacturers offer solar panels for a medium price. American PV modules aren&#;t always the most modern and they sometimes lack efficiency in comparison to the most advanced Chinese models. However, the quality is there and the panels are sturdy and resilient. You could say that US brands are a good middle-of-the-road choice. Among the most popular USA brands of wholesale solar panels we could mention Mission Solar, Canadian Solar and Silfab.
There are also a few brands that offer premium-class PV modules for home installations. These include Panasonic Eco Solutions, LG, SunPower, REC, Solaria and a few others. Generally, it doesn&#;t make much sense to build commercial systems out of them &#; they are too classy and expensive for that. However, you might save quite a lot by opting to go for their wholesale solar roof panels. They often come with the best warranties on the market, have great design and withstand all kinds of harsh weather &#; a great choice for your home.
Our customers use solar panels for residential, commercial and industrial projects &#; solar energy proves to be a reliable and efficient tool in different circumstances. The panels that are used in home and business systems differ in their output, size and type of installation. Let&#;s go over the basics.
Generally, homeowners pick panels in the 300 to 370 Watt power range. For example, a 350 watt panel is a very popular choice for home installations. The average size of a residential system in the USA is 5-6 kW, so you usually need around 17-25 modules to power your home appliances with solar.
When it comes to commercial and industrial systems, customers tend to go for wholesale high power solar panels. 500 watt panels or even more powerful ones is a common thing in large solar projects and solar farms. That&#;s only natural: the energy needs of enterprises are huge and there is no reason not to maximize the power output per square foot when you want as much energy as possible.
Panels for home systems usually have 60/120 cells. They are relatively small and it's easier to fit them on a house roof. Their dimensions are about 39 x 66 inches. A 120-cell panel is the same size as 60-cell panels because of the half-cut cell technology. Generally all panels with 300-370 Watts of power have 60/120 cells.
In systems of a larger scope 72/144-cell and 96-cell are used more often. Usually, space constraints are less of a problem with commercial systems, therefore there is no reason not to pick up larger panels with higher power output. 72/144 cell panels are approximately 39 x 77 inches in size.
400 watt wholesale solar panels are an interesting case. They are the middle-of-the-road choice and you can often see them both in residential and commercial installations. They often have 66/132 cells and their dimensions vary from 39 x 71 to 39 x 77 inches.
The majority of home solar systems are installed on the roof. It&#;s only natural: homeowners rarely use roof space for anything else. Larger systems are often ground-based, since massive energy production with powerful wholesale solar panels is a priority. Small and medium commercial systems are often installed on a flat roof, which makes a system similar to a ground-based one.
Almost all installations of a large scope (>10-15 kW) are grid-tie, which means that they are connected to the grid. An owner of a grid-tie installation is free to use commercial electricity, but he also can pump his excess solar energy into the grid and gain credits from his electric utility. When systems get large, it becomes too expensive to add batteries for support.
The majority of residential systems are grid-tie as well, but going off-grid is a reasonable option here. It makes sense when power outages are too frequent or there are no power lines available. A solar system can become the only source of energy for a house in a remote location: PV modules power the appliances during the day and at night you rely on energy storage. Just a couple of batteries is usually enough to back up a small size solar system.
You might be wondering &#; how exactly are we going to deliver the pallet? A1SolarStore has a distribution network throughout continental US. We work with the top freight carriers XPO, FedEx, ODFL, R&L etc. The panels are shipped with LTL/Freight service. Freight orders are delivered in a manner called &#;curbside delivery&#;, which generally means that the carrier delivers the pallet to the end of your driveway.
Important things to remember:
- You&#;ll have to climb into the truck and unload the pallet and all boxes for the order yourself. A liftgate can be used to take the pallet off the truck and lower it to the ground level. However, this is considered to be extra service &#; you&#;ll have to order and pay for it in advance.
- The carrier is not responsible for delivering the pallet up your driveway or onto your property.
Alongside wholesale solar panels for your home and business, we also ship batteries, inverters, charge controllers and addons with FedEx Ground.
When you receive a shipment or grab your order at our fulfillment center, it&#;s important to remember a few guidelines about how to carry and move solar panels around.
When you carry a panel, try not to apply too much pressure in one spot. Distribute the weight of a module across your shoulder, arm and back. The installation process should be handled by professionals. Generally, they use a mechanical lift to get the panels up on the roof and some workers use a ladder instead.
If you want to grab the panels yourself at one of our fulfillment centers, leave a note "palletized order" in request comments. The pallet is a bit bigger than a panel and it might not fit in the back of every car. If you want to take the panels as they are, prepare some sort of packaging to minimize the risk of cracking the module. You can use foam pads, bubble wrap, and even blankets. Don't put anything on top of the panels!
So where to buy solar panels wholesale? A1SolarStore is a great choice for several different reasons.
- Our fulfillment centers are located on both east and west coasts of the USA: California, Washington, Colorado, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and Missouri. You can check our map that shows the current availability of products in fulfillment centers.
- We process all orders within 24 hours and ship them within 48 hours. Delivery usually takes between 4-7 business days &#; you get your order within a week.
- All of our suppliers are trusted manufacturers. We sell no counterfeit products.
- We offer competitive prices and there are several payment options available.
All of this makes A1SolarStore the best place to buy solar panels wholesale. Our staff is ready to help you with your purchase and answer all of your questions about delivery, warranties and availability.
Utility-Scale Solar: What Is It, How Does It Work?
Utility-scale solar refers to large solar installations designed to feed power directly onto the electric grid. These huge solar installations are built by developers who sign long-term contracts called power purchase agreements with the utility companies in their areas. The power is sold at wholesale prices and sent along transmission lines to be distributed to customers.
This is different from distributed solar, which is also called &#;behind the meter solar,&#; because the electricity it generates is first used onsite by the owner, and only the excess energy is sent to the grid and counted by the customer&#;s electricity meter..
Read on to learn more about how solar energy is used on the utility scale.
Key takeaways
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Utility-scale solar is the use of large solar power plants to produce electricity at a mass scale.
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There are two main types of utility-scale solar: solar PV (&#;solar panels&#;), the tech used in most solar power plants, and concentrated solar power.
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Installing a solar plant costs between 77 cents and 89 cents per watt of installed capacity as of Q1 . This cost can be reduced by 30% through the solar tax credit.
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The average cost of utility solar power at the wholesale level was $24/MWh as of .
What is utility-scale solar?
Utility-scale solar describes large solar power plants that produce electricity for the utility grid. The utility grid, in turn, distributes the electricity to end consumers. The solar energy generated by solar power plants is sold to utility companies and other large power consumers via power purchase agreements, which we discuss later in the article.
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Recommended article:Maximize Your Solar Power Potential with ODM's 15w Solar PanelsThe U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) considers a power plant to be &#;utility scale&#; if its total generation capacity is 1 megawatt (MW) or greater. There are currently over 10,000 solar photovoltaic (PV) plants that meet this definition.
Falling costs and increased demand for renewable energy mean that the utility-scale solar sector has boomed in recent years. The EIA estimates that solar is now the leading source of new electricity generation capacity, accounting for 39% of new capacity expected to be added in , ahead of wind and natural gas.
While many solar power plants use the same technology as home solar systems - solar photovoltaics - they operate at a far larger scale, allowing them to generate power at an even lower cost.
Most large-scale solar plants employ technology that&#;s very similar to that used by residential systems; you&#;ll probably find little technical difference between a solar panel used on a solar farm and one atop a typical home setup. Of course, solar farms operate on a scale that is several orders of magnitude greater, which allows them to drive down per-unit costs through economies of scale.
Types of utility-scale solar
There are two main types of utility-scale solar:
Solar photovoltaics (PV) - more popularly known as solar panels
Concentrated Solar Power, or solar thermal
1. Solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants
Alternatively referred to as &#;solar farms&#;, utility-scale solar photovoltaics describes the use of a large number of solar modules (solar panels) installed together to create a power plant.
The technology and configuration of solar PV power plants is quite similar to that used in residential rooftop solar panels. In both cases, the solar panels capture sunlight and use the photovoltaic process to convert sunlight into Direct Current (DC) electricity, which is then converted into Alternating Current (AC) electricity - which is the electricity homes use.
There are however, some key areas where utility scale PV differs from home solar, in terms of scale, the way they&#;re mounted, and their tracking technology.
Scale: Solar PV power plants use thousands, or hundreds of thousands of solar panels to generate power at the utility scale. Solar Star, the largest solar farm in the U.S. uses 1.7 million solar panels spread over 3,200 acres in Los Angeles and Kern County, California.
Ground-mounted: Given the sheer number of solar panels required, PV power plants are mounted on the ground, generally in areas where land is cheaply available.
Tracking technology: Solar axis tracking tech allows solar panels to turn in order to follow the sun&#;s changing path based on the seasons, or even the time of day. This tracking technology allows the solar panels to produce more power than they would if they were in a stationary position. Eighty-eight percent of new solar capacity installed in utilized this tech.
2. Concentrated solar power (CSP) power plants
Concentrated solar power (CSO) plants use thousands of special mirrors (helioscopes) to reflect sunlight onto a central collector. There, the sun&#;s heat energy is collected and either stored in a medium like molten salt, or used to generate electricity via a steam turbine.
Since CSP power plants use the heat energy of the sun (unlike PV plants which use light), they are often called &#;solar thermal plants&#;. They are also known as &#;power towers&#; or &#;salt tower plants&#; because of the distinctive tall towers that some CSP plants use.
A major advantage of CSP plants is that they can incorporate energy storage, allowing power generation after dark without the need for expensive batteries. However, while costs are dropping, CSP power stations are still significantly more costly than solar PV plants, and thus account for a very small proportion of solar facilities.
Learn more: Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) explained
Utility-scale solar power providers
According to SEIA, there are nearly 10,000 utility-scale PV facilities, i.e. solar projects over 1 MW in size. The most common power plant size is between 1 megawatt and 5 megawatts (1-5 MW) in solar capacity. But it&#;s the big solar power stations - those greater than 50 MW in size, that account for the bulk of solar generation output.
Here are the biggest players in the utility-scale solar space; each operates over 5,000 MW in total solar capacity, according to energy intelligence company Energy Acuity:
Cypress Creek Renewables
First Solar, Inc.
NextEra Energy, Inc.
EcoPlexus, Inc
8minuteenergy
The role of power purchase agreements in utility-scale solar
Power purchase agreements (PPAs) are contracts that guarantee that the energy generated by a solar power plant will be purchased, usually by a utility. PPAs specify a time period for the arrangements - typically between 5 and 20 years - as well as the price that will be paid for the electricity.
PPAs are a critical element for every utility-scale solar power project. By signing a PPA, the energy operator gains confidence that it will receive an adequate return on investment, which allows them to raise the millions - in some cases, billions - of dollars required to build and operate a utility solar project.
In regulated electricity markets, renewable energy projects typically sign their PPA directly with the utility company. In deregulated markets, on the other hand, PPAs can be traded and signed with multiple off-takers (purchasers) and stakeholders.
In recent years, major corporations like Google and Amazon have been signing corporate PPAs with solar developers so that they can power their business operations with clean renewable energy resources.
As the cost of building utility-scale projects has dropped in recent years, solar PPAs are being agreed upon at ever-lower rates, which has helped make solar energy increasingly attractive to utilities and governments.
How much does utility solar cost?
We can look at the cost of utility-scale solar two ways:
The cost of building a utility-scale solar system
The cost of building a solar power system is measured in cost per watt of installed capacity. For Q1 , SEIA reported costs of $0.77 per watt for fixed-tilt utility installations, and $0.89 per watt for utility installations that incorporate tracking.
This would put a 1 MW solar power plant at between $770,000 and $890,000, while a 100 MW power plant would cost between $77 million and $89 million. These numbers are based on national averages; so expect substantial variations between projects based on scale, choice of solar panel brand, and region.
Do note that the figures discussed above, and in the chart below, are before applying the solar tax credit. This federal incentive, also known as the Clean Energy Credit, effectively reduces the cost of solar projects by 30%.
The cost of utility-scale solar electricity
To assess the cost of utility-scale solar electricity, we can check what price solar PPAs are going for on the wholesale market.
Berkeley Labs reports a nationwide average levelized PPP of $24 per MWh in , or 2.4 cents per kWh. This represented a decrease of 17% over the year before () and a 80% decline since .
More recently, LevelTen Energy, a renewable energy marketplace, reported an uptick in prices in , with a Q3 average price of $29.2/MWh, and average prices across America&#;s five independent system operators of between $25.1/MWh and $36.8/MWh.
Bear in the mind that the prices quoted above are the cost of solar electricity in the wholesale market. The final price of solar for consumers will include the cost of transmission and distribution, which according to the EIA together account for nearly half (46%) the average price of electricity.
Curious about the cost of residential solar power? Get a cost estimate for your home
Contact us to discuss your requirements of 144 Cell 400w Solar Panel. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
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