Best choice for mounting solar on top of soft bimini

[zemurray]

I just tackled this project myself last week. I looked long and hard at various solutions, and eventually decided against the flexible panels. They cost way more, they dont last as long, they dont generate as much power for a given size, etc..

I mounted one 160W Renogy panel I got on Amazon for $189. With the solar controller, cabling, MC4 connectors, a MC4 crimp tool, hardware, etc I have a total of $500 in the system.

I’ve been in my boat for days and its keeping up just fine even though its been mostly cloudy for several days. I run an engle fridge, lights, charge my devices, a laptop for work, etc..

I wanted something that was minimal and low profile, which is why I leaned towards flexible panels on the canvas for a long time, I think this turned out fairly
well though. It also held up well to a couple squalls we sailed through with 35kts

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

I am so far happy with my 2 SunPower 110w panels that are almost 2 years old. I made sunbrella “mounts” that use Velcro to hold panels and are stitched to my sunbrella bimini. I backed them with corrugated plastic for stiffness.

[JustMurph]

Being a cat, if you can fit commercial sized hard panels (1.6m+), do it. It's a game changer. Forget the overpriced, old technology "marine" panels and buy the best of the Chinese commercial panels, which are now leading the rest of the world for both outputs and technology. They're a fraction of the cost and the outputs are huge, especially in low light or partially shaded conditions. You don't find the same technologies in smaller panels.

My cat is a good bit larger at 48', but with 4 x 430W 2m panels each with its own individual victron MPPT controller, the power output on a sunny day is huge, but the real game changer is still being able to generate enough power on a fully overcast day to cover all the house loads and make hot water. The four panels were under AU$1000.

There are some flexible panels that do have quite high cell efficiencies, but they don't have the technologies that allow them to still produce decent power in partially shaded and low light conditions.

[jbinbi]

Appreciate all the replies. Apologies, sold the cat. On that I built a custom frame and had 2 285 w rigid panels.

For this project, going on a bimini over the flybridge on a trawler.

Need to refigure out how to change my profile from a mobile device....