Efficiency Rating Solar Panels

The highest efficiency solar panels on the market today can reach almost 23 percent efficiency.

Efficiency rating solar panels.

Most solar panels are between 15 and 20 efficient with outliers on either side of the range. Solar panel efficiency is a measure of how much sunlight that hits the surface area of a solar panel is converted into usable electricity. So if a solar panel has an efficiency rating of 15 that means 15 of the sunlight that hits the solar panels will be converted into electricity. Total panel efficiency is measured under standard test conditions stc based on a cell temperature of 25 c solar irradiance of 1000w m2 and air mass of 1 5.

The average efficiency of solar panels falls between the 17 to 19 percent efficiency range. Simply put solar panel efficiency is referred to the ratio of peak power compared to the amount of sunlight that arrives at the solar cells of the module. High quality solar panels can exceed 22 efficiency in some cases and almost reach 23 but the majority of photovoltaic panels available are not above 20 efficiency. The efficiency of a panel is calculated by the maximum power rating w at stc divided by the total panel area in meters.

In other words the efficiency value that we can find on the datasheet of a solar panel represents the ability of the module to convert sunlight into electricity according to its size. The graphic below shows how dramatically solar panel performance has improved over time.