Top 10 Popular Solar Panel Brands in Australia

Barry Martin
7 min readJun 21, 2018

Are you looking for the best solar panel brands presently dominating the solar market in Australia?

You are likely to come across numerous brands of solar panels in the market as the green energy concept is gaining traction at a faster pace now than ever before. I believe it’s time to weed out the mediocre brands from the Tier-1 companies so your money is invested only in the right choice.

If you’re trying to determine the savings generated from installing solar panels, feel free to read along.

Now before I lead the topic to a more personal brand preference (which isn’t exactly why you’re here), the rest of the article will guide you in the process of making the right investment decision.

Top 10 solar panel brands made in Europe:

Solar panels made in Germany invest heavily in their research and development sector; henceforth, their innovation rate is frequent. The following panels have remarkable efficiencies, even during cloudy mornings.

Q–Cells:

One of the largest German based manufacturers of crystalline silicon PV, silicon ingots and wafers having plants scattered across China, Malaysia and South Korea. Q- Cells believes in continuous innovation, which is also why the panels are listed under the top innovative and most efficient solar panels, perfectly suited for the climate in Australia.

Find out if your property is applicable for solar rebate in 2018.

Their manufacturing process is driven by CNC machines with robotic arms that guarantee perfection. To my belief, this brand is at least five years ahead of competition pioneers of the thin film technology.

Bosch Solar:

The brand is expensive, but guarantees high returns as long as 25 years during its entire lifetime. The best part of the brand is that it can sustain tremendous wind speed as well as intense snowfall; hence, making it the perfect panel for windy or coastal regions.

  • In terms of Quality Management, the Bosch solar is certified as DIN EN ISO 9001:2008
  • Certified environmental compliance of DIN EN ISO 14001:2009

Bosch Solar Energy is frequently developing, designing and reinventing solar panels as well as performing in-house testing to guarantee optimum satisfaction for solar enthusiasts.

LG Solar:

Presently, LG has secured a dominating position in the market since 20 years ago. The brand is comprised of the latest technology for turning the DC into AC supply for homes and its appliances.

Furthermore, the price of this brand is moderately feasible despite having the best technology; as a result, more people are able to afford solar panels by LG. Investing in one of these panels will definitely save you from years of unforeseen system breakdown; but don’t worry as such breakdowns appear after 25 years upon installation.

The panel can absorb sunlight from both surface planes; as a result, it can continue generating electricity while the sun shifts its position over the sky throughout the daytime.

  • This is the reason behind the brand’s remarkable success.
  • LG to some extent has successfully set a new benchmark in this industry.

Tindo Solar

Based in Adelaide, Tindo Solar was eventually acquired by “Cool or Cosy” another solar installer based in Australia. The acquisition proved to be a success mainly because the owners always fixate on the same mission

“Bring quality solar products designed in Australia. In a market where it tends to be a race to the bottom, we actually stand for the opposite.”

Tindo continues to manufacture solar panels in Australia to date, unlike the remaining ones that merely promised to do so. The output of the Tindo panels ranges between 240 to 260 Watt with efficiency falling between 14.2% to 15.6%; thus, even a moderately sized rooftop can compensate for the space needed for the panels.

Trina Honey

The brand of solar panel specializing in crystalline silicon made PV installer capable of generating power between 265 to 285 Watt, with an efficiency rate reaching up to 17.4% and above during sunny days.

Fully certified and can withstand the large wind force at 2400Pa and 5400Pa resulting from snow fall; moreover, the panes have enormous capacity for sustaining 35mm of hailstones traveling at 97km/h.

  • ISO 9001certified in terms of Quality Management.
  • ISO 14001certified in term of Environmental Management System.
  • ISO 14064Carbon Emissions Verified.
  • OHSAS 18001Occupational Health and Safety Management System.

It must be noted that the majority of these brands have chosen to outsource their manufacturing processes in Asia, mainly due to lower manufacturing costs involved.

Few Top Notched Chinese Solar Panel Brands Include:

JA Solar

JA Solar Holdings specializes in designing, upgrading and manufacturing solar panels straight out of the People’s Republic of China.

The brand focuses specifically on manufacturing both mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline panel cells; therefore, with time they have successfully expanded into the European markets of Spain, Germany, Sweden and the USA.

  • Good efficiency rate at 16.5%.
  • The anti-reflective layer prevents additional energy waste resulting from dust.
  • Can sustain wind and snow pressures at 2400Pa and 5400Pa respectively.
  • Equal capacity to generate power on rooftops as well as on the ground.

Suntech Power

Founded in 2001 by one of the most prominent engineers named Dr. Zhengrong Shi; as a matter of fact, today the company is the largest manufacturer of silicon solar PV system.

Till today, Suntech Power has successfully managed to spread its operation across 13 different countries including America and Switzerland. Their customers are living in 80 different nations while experiencing peaking performance since 2008.

Despite being the largest solar panel distributor, Suntech still lacks innovation. They prefer following other brands before choosing to get their hands dirty.

Aesthetic outlook

The stable mounting option can withstand enormous wind speed and severe pressure from snowfall. Most importantly, your property value will rise significantly and further giving it a more sophisticated appearance to it.

  • The company is a listed stock options provider at NASDAQ for eight years now.

Yingli Solar

Another dominating solar brand owning almost 10% market share and continuously upgrading itself for surviving the Australian market. Yingli covers everything starting from compiling raw materials such as silicon to ultimately manufacturing solar panels and processing them to make final products.

World’s first vertically integrated designers of solar panels; hence, every crucial aspect of their technology are handled internally for preserving the sensitive information generated from its R&D sector. The company has further joined forces with WWF Climate Savers Initiative since 2013.

So far Yingli is certified as per ISO 1800 and 14001, which is the underlying reason for securing the top position under the list of top 3 global manufacturers by Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

  • Each of Yingli’s solar modules maintains an average efficiency rate at 17% and above.

China Sunergy

Specialized to manufacture panels made of silicon wafer technology combined with mono and multi crystalline PV systems; thus, helping efficiency rate to extend beyond 16% in just a few years.

Outstandingly resilient against heavy rain and snowfall, including high intensity wind force. The TUV certified panels can generate DC power between 210 to 350 Watts.

Beginning since 2017, China Sunergy is authorized to manufacture its panels in Sacramento, America and continues to manufacture by employing over 8000 workers in its factories.

Jinko Solar

Currently the largest producers of PV makers based in China, with a few production facilities located in Portugal as well as South Africa and India. Presently, the company has subsidiaries located across 16 different locations, namely USA, Germany, UK, India, Mexico, France and Belgium.

Their production facility in China is humongous with capacity exceeding 450 MW solar panels, 200MW in Portugal and 120MW in South Africa.
The latest Jinko Honey M Plus panels are 17.7% more efficient in terms of power generation.

  • The provided efficiency rate by Jinko is extremely accurate, unlike other brands in the market.

The technology is not only reliable but also extremely price competitive; thus, making it quite popular in Australia.

Concluding Verdict:

Every listed brand of solar panels mentioned here is high end and guaranteed for self-sustainable power while securing a possible investment option for the future. Any of the mentioned brands here will serve your purpose. Hence, guaranteed to result in ultimate satisfaction both for customers and installers equally.

Trust me; this is four years of research speaking that I have personally carried out before installing solar panels on my own roof. And being a professional installer since 2012, I am now more aware of solar brands than the back of my hands.

You have the liberty to choose from any of the mentioned brands here while being aware of your demand factors.

However, make sure you’ve clearly defined your purpose before investing in solar panels. Otherwise, you’re likely to experience negatively and may end up brewing a distaste for the technology.

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Barry Martin

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