Hey everyone, today we’ll be reviewing the Hanwha QCell Q.Peak DUO-G5 solar module. This is a module we offer just about every customer and for good reason. We feel the best way to be confident in your solar investment is to thoroughly review the product options available to you. There are four key metrics that you should review as you evaluate solar panels: efficiency, performance, warranties, and project cost.
Now, more and more solar installers are offering QCELLS to consumers, and there’s a range of reasons, we’ve been offering QCELLS to customers for several years now. But as of lately, we’ve only been offering their Q.PEAK DUO G5 module, and it’s important to understand what makes this module so unique compared to other solar manufactures.
So the Germans, them clever engineers, realized if you cut a traditional square solar cell in half, you can actually increase the performance and efficiency of the cell. I’m sure there was more scientific stuff that occurred to come to this conclusion, but I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of big words. Anyways, a standard solar module has 60-cells, these little squares, well QCELL cut every one of them in half, to make 120-half-cells. Well this resulted in higher efficiency and wattage of the module, they also relocated the bus bars, diodes and junction boxes to push the efficiency and wattage even higher. The beauty to this breakthrough is it doesn’t add extra cost, because all they’ve done in simple terms is make it easier for the electricity from the sun to travel through the cells.
With this new knowledge of the technology behind these specific modules, lets talk efficiency. The module we offer currently to our customers is the QCell Q.Peak Duo G5 325W panel. This panel has a 19.6% efficiency rating, which makes it a premium panel. Comparing this to LG Solars 340W Neon2 and Panasonic 330W H I T panel you can see it’s in par with these name brands but it comes at a fraction of the cost which helps your return on investment.
Moving onto the wattage, currently the Q.PEAK DUO G5 caps at 335 watts, but I recently attended a QCell Partner meeting and they’ll be releasing a new Q.PEAK DUO G6 later this year with a starting wattage of 340. Both the G5 and soon to be released G6 will be manufactured here in America at a facility in Georgia. When comparing the performance or wattage of a panel to LG Solar or Panasonic, you can see LG does have some modules that produce a little more power, while Panasonic is lagging behind.
Now, I know this isn’t a name brand product, and it doesn’t come with a name brand warranty, but it doesn’t come with a standard warranty either. Hanwha QCells offers a 12-year product warranty, and a 25-year linear performance warranty. In previous review videos, I always tell you to compare the linear performance warranty output percentage. This is the minimum guaranteed performance of the module at year 25. Comparing this to LG Solar and Panasonic, you can see the QCell will have at least 85% of it’s nominal power up-to year 25. With LG Neon2 offering 84.8% and Panasonic H I T offering 90.76%. This puts QCell above LG Solar and just under Panasonic.
The last this to review is the price and it’s worth noting the figures I’m providing are estimates, and prices vary from region to region, and company to company. So don’t hold these figures as exact to what you should get but as reference points. There’s a lot of other factors that go into a projects pricing besides the panels. With that said, a 20 panel QCell DUO G5 325 watt system should run you between $18,000 to $21,000. Which compared to an LG Solar system and a Panasonic solar system comes in a quite a bit more affordable.
Wrapping this review up, the Hanwha QCell is a great solar manufacture with a great product. You’ll receive a high efficiency premium panel, with premium performance, and a great warranty. Not to mention this all comes at a price point that helps you save more money.