Chinese PV heavyweight Trina Solar has announced that its dense, high-efficiency Vertex S solar panels will be available in Australia’s residential and small and mid-sized markets (SME) from April.
The 390-405 W Vertex S is a smaller and lighter model than its Vertex counterpart utilised by solar farms. According to Trina’s senior country sales manager, Govind Kant, Australia’s residential solar market grew 15% in 2020 and “we anticipate Australia’s residential solar market to continue to grow by 8-10% this year.”
“There was unprecedented growth in the residential market,” continued Kant, “More people were staying and working at home, so they were using more electricity. Australians really felt the impact of higher electricity prices and responded by opting to install rooftop solar to mitigate that.”
Launching a new module in a booming market meant for Trina Solar that it would have to do something different, and that difference is in the size and weight of the panels themselves. Smaller and lighter, Trina says the Vertex S is easier to handle and install on the rooftops of homes and SMEs.
In a statement Trina said that it surveyed Australian installers to determine the most practical size and weight of panels and found that panels really needed to weigh less than 23kgs and have a maximum length of 1.8m. The Vertex S weighs in at 21kg, is 1.75m long and 1.09m in breadth.
According to Matthew Wilkins, CEO of South Australian installer Venergy Australia, Trina’s Vertex series “is a trend in the right direction.”
“One of the challenges with Australian residential and/or SME customers is installations with limited roof space,” Wilkins told pv magazine Australia. With smaller, lighter, and more dense solar systems Wilkins says that spaces previously not viable for solar installation due to their limited roof space can now go solar.
“The more energy density we can provide per square metre of roof space means less upfront Capital Expense from home and business owners,” continued Wilkins, “an important consideration when calculating the rate of return from solar installation, as well as cashflow-related issues of their personal or business resource.”
The density of the Vertex S is a technological offshoot from Trina’s utility-grade panels, and has a power efficiency of 21.1% brought about by large size wafers 210mm in diameter with the space between cells minimised by new packing technology.
“The trend in Australia is that consumers are opting for more powerful systems,” reiterated Kant, “so we believe Vertex S will be very popular as it offers a higher power density.
The Vertex S comes with a 15-year warranty as standard but that can be extended to 25 years upon request and evaluation.
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