There’s no doubt REC is the best solar panel available in the world right now. It kept pace with the likes of Sunpower, Q.Cells, LG, and has now taken over the lot to be the last premium panel standing. What is doubtful though, is whether or not REC is worth the price tag. In this post we are going to look at 3 key points that separate REC from the rest.
Key Point #1 – Better Peace of Mind
REC, standing for Renewable Energy Corporation, has roots back in Norway as early as 1996. They were the largest producers of multicrystalline wafers at the time, earning the title of Norway’s largest privately owned company. They’ve now of course moved on to the complete process of wafer, cell, panel, at their fully automated factory in Singapore.
They’ve won the European Intersolar award 3 different times, their latest as recent in 2022 for their Alpha Pure range.
The award is based on an expert jury’s assessment of innovation, technological creativity/benefits, environmental impacts, and pricing. REC Pure-R is powerful, efficient, and doesn’t use any lead – which is what “Pure” denotes in their name. Compare this to most solar panels using 14 grams of lead in every panel, REC stands out big time. Lead is not a renewable energy source, so doing away with it is fantastic both from an environmental perspective, but also from a long term manufacturing perspective.
REC have an impeccable name in the Solar Industry. Solarquotes released their 2024 Installer Choice awards, which is basically a panel rating system scored by solar installers around the country. REC won it by a hefty margin.
A big part of why they’re able to maintain this quality, is due to their complete, vertical integrated manufacturing process. Where most solar panel companies buy their wafers from Longi, or the solar cells from other companies, REC do it all themselves, all in house. This means they’re not at the mercy (or quality) of external cell or wafer producers – everything is theirs, giving them full control over this process. This has given REC the title of “World Class Warranty Coverage,” and for good reason. RECs full building process of the panel from the wafer up, has let them track every panel they’ve ever shipped. As such, the figures they’re able to boast on warranty claims for their products, is a ridiculously low 0.005%.
This peace of mind is probably reason enough to buy them, but I have more.
Key Point #2 – Better Build
So for a panel to be better than the rest, you would install assume it needs to be built better than the rest. I can tell you these REC Pure-RX panels are. Right off the bat you can see the two additional reinforced bars across the back.
Compare this to a typical panel which has nothing, you can already tell it’s just physically stronger.
By having a better build, REC have been able to test their panels beyond the minimum Australian standards.
Instead of surviving a hailstone 25mm in diameter and 8g weight, they survived a hefty a 35mm, 20g one.
Instead of surviving 56 days in an accelerated simulated salty environment, they have to survive 112 days (112 accelerated days would represent 20+ years in reality).
Instead of surviving maximum voltage in sauna-like conditions for 40 hours, they’re tested beyond 96.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. This results in the REC Pure-RX modules to be able to claim the highest severity of salt mist resistance, the highest level of potential induced degradation, the highest level of mechanical load, the highest level of cyclonic wind loads, etc.
Now there is an argument that some tests are excessive and well beyond what may exist in reality, but it’s still comforting to know. I would say though, the longer you plan to be in your house, the more important these higher testing standards will matter over time. For example, Potential Induced degradation is a power loss phenomenon that is heightened during high humidity and temperatures. After 10-20 years on your roof in harsh Australian conditions, panels that survive these stringent tests are simply more likely to be producing more power than panels that don’t.
Key Point #3 – Better Design
Better design may not be what you think. I don’t mean REC Alphas look cool or their cable management is better (but they do look cool and it is better), what I mean is they’re much better suited to solar panel array designs. This is primarily due to them favouring high voltage, lower current, as opposed to most panels striving for low voltage, high current. The problem we are seeing with high current panels is the inability to parallel panels into modern inverters without suffering a form of current clipping. Mark has written about current clipping previously, but to briefly rehash it’s when panels are unable to reach their full power output due to them hitting inverter current limits. We see a bit of flat lining on the production, with panels wanting to produce you more power, but the inverter saying no.
Say we want to parallel a bank of 14A panels with another, the peak power is achieved when current hits 28A. But, even the best string inverters have current limits of 25A, so during the middle of the day in ideal conditions, we are potentially losing 3A worth of power, or roughly 11% at maximum. If we imagine 20x460W panels are installed north into a 10 + 10 parallel configuration, and allow for a bit of efficiency losses, your panels could be producing 700W of power less than they should for every second clipping is occurring.
This is probably the main benefit of going high voltage, low current, and was a big design advantage for us previously when our Sunpower Panels followed the same voltage / current ratios. Further still though, lower current solar panels also have lower current flow through the systems wiring. This results in less heat generation and less resistance, which further minimises energy losses. Their higher voltage also means strings of panels will hit optimal inverter voltage operating windows a lot sooner, meaning an array of 3-4 REC Pure-RX panels will be producing more than an array of 3-4 lower voltage panels.
Conclusion
In summary, there’s no doubt REC Alpha Pure-RX panels are the ultimate solar panel in terms of quality, build, design, manufacturing, testing standards, environmental benefits, and industry leadership. They have been top performer in every PVEL entry, have won Intersolar multiple times, and have the most impressive warranty claims for any solar panel in existence. They do however, come at a cost. This cost may be a necessity if a particular solar design benefits from it, or it just may be something people are willing to pay for the large peace of mind REC offers in both their warranty claims and build quality. We have both REC and Canadian in our current range, with each filling their respective niche to suit your views, values, and what you want from a solar installation.
