Biggest Solar Panels...

[HarrisonM]

Hello:

I am in the process of upgrading my electrical system to Lithium batteries and Victron. I have a pretty big arch and want to install the largest panels I can. Renogy makes a 550 watt panel. Does anyone know if a larger one exists?

They keep getting bigger and bigger...

Link
https://www.renogy.com/550-watt-mono...xoCYKIQAvD_BwE

[bdgWesternMass]

Originally Posted by HarrisonM

Hello:

I am in the process of upgrading my electrical system to Lithium batteries and Victron. I have a pretty big arch and want to install the largest panels I can. Renogy makes a 550 watt panel. Does anyone know if a larger one exists?

They keep getting bigger and bigger...

Link
https://www.renogy.com/550-watt-mono...xoCYKIQAvD_BwE

Couldn’t get pas the pop up ad. 550 Watts is alot. I was looking at what I thought were large panels at 440 watts.

[Sos]

Why not more smaller ones? You then have redundancy if one fails / gets broken.

[Pete7]

Canadian Solar (Chinese company) have a 575w panel in the UK.

My concern would be how you are going to mount them so they don't bend in strong winds. That is quite a big piece of glass.

Pete

[HarrisonM]

Have not heard of CanadianSolar. I will look into them. Thanks... Those are big panels. I will have to add in a good support system for them. I think I will still add some flexible panels on top of my Bimini but I want the ones on my arch to be the biggest I can get.

[The Yacht Rigger]

How wide is the arch? Sometimes its a balance between fitting two or three panels. We often find that we can more easily fit three panels in the 450w range, instead of two in the 550w range because most of the 500w+ panels are 44" or so wide and there are a lot of 450(ish) panels in the 40" wide range.
We install a lot of Qcell 485w bifacial panels for arches for this reason.

[HarrisonM]

My radar is mounted on my arch so I cant get three across. I can only get two on it. One on each side... I tried to move the radar to the mast but it presented a host of technical difficulties to I kept it where it is.....

[The Yacht Rigger]

Ah ok. Fair enough. I know that struggle!
Just try to make sure the radar isn't constantly shading the panels. Huge efficiency loss if that happens.

[Statistical]

Canadian Solar has panels up to 605W (although 575W in the same family mentioned above is more common).

https://static.csisolar.com/wp-conte...-V1.6C1_AU.pdf

One thing to be aware is these are split cell panels so they have lower than normal voltage (~37 VoC) but higher current (~18A). Depending on how you wire them that may or may not cause complications.

Keep in mind when there are panels with differing wattage but same size and configuration (in this case 575W to 605W) the output is based on yields so sometimes the higher end panels won't be available in all markets or available at all from time to time.

[s/v Jedi]

For an arch you can opt for bifacial panels. I plan for 440W bifacial that can get a 30% boost in good conditions. This puts them in the 550W+ range.

[HarrisonM]

You are right about the radar shading the panels... I did not quite think of that... Uggggg

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by HarrisonM

My radar is mounted on my arch so I cant get three across. I can only get two on it. One on each side... I tried to move the radar to the mast but it presented a host of technical difficulties to I kept it where it is.....

Have you found my thread about using cassettes with sliding panels? Exactly what you need

[s/v Jedi]

Here it is: https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ms-275698.html

[nelly]

Another thought, I have used "flying" solar panels to great success. Flexible panels with extra wire that you lash down to your boat when you need them. You can tie them up basically anywhere on your boat, including the sides of your arch, and you can throw them around on passage, easily move them, etc..

I designed my arch system to accept two such panels, but consider what happens with parallel vs series wiring and solar to make sure you're not destroying your efficiency!

It's a great way to get another 600w (with just two). And you can position them to kinda-sorta be at a good angle towards the sun.

Brand, not sure: do your research. One thing is important: make sure you get panels that have grommets. You can't really install your own with much success, and drilling a hole in them is not a working solution.

The great part about this solution is it enables you to have less windage in most conditions - so size your arch to accommodate 80% of your situation or so, and then bring out the flexible in that 20% (rather than turning on the engine).

It also offers some level of redundancy, I am sure I am not the first one to have banged up a panel on a piling. Ugh.

[HarrisonM]

Awesome ideas!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep them coming. I am still in my planning phase and all ideas welcome...