Canadian Solar joins the 500 W-plus panel club

Sino-Canadian manufacturer Canadian Solar has joined the lengthening list of companies to launch a 500 W-plus panel range.

The Nasdaq-listed company has unveiled five high-power devices to swell its HiKu, bifacial BiHiKu and HiDM product lines, with mass production to start by early next year.

The series 5 products – including the HiKu 5 and BiHiKu 5 – are based on M6 wafers with the aforementioned two models featuring Canadian Solar’s LeTID (light and elevated-temperature-induced degradation) mitigation technology, which the manufacturer claims reduces the incidence of degradation by half compared to the industry standard.

With mono and polycrystalline versions available, the bifacial offering of the series 5 products offers up to 500 W, according to Canadian, with the series 6 BiHiKu 6 said to generate up to 590 W, with a conversion efficiency of 21.3% in a module based on a 182mm wafer.

That sort of power output, said Canadian yesterday, can reduce balance of system costs 5.2% for levelized cost of energy savings of up to 12.3%.

The new, high-power range also features a series 5 product dedicated to commercial and industrial rooftop use – the HiDM 5. The all-black panel offers a reported 405 W.

Canadian will offer a 30-year linear power guarantee for the bifacial products, assuring a maximum 2% attenuation during the first year of use and 0.45% in subsequent years. The single-sided models come with a 25-year warranty, for a maximum 2% and then 0.55%. The new range will also be supplied with 12-year product and process warranties.