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Comment by webmobdev | Hacker News Reader

If I remember right, China has been the leading largest manufacturers of Solar Panels in the world for sometime now. And they are not famous for quality. I wonder if they did a comparison based on that factor too?

If this is not just an issue with Chinese solar panels, then it is bad news for the industry. Solar power generation at home will not be economically viable if the solar panels don't perform and last to the 10 years or so that they currently guarantee. Especially when they are already hampered by high battery costs (which needs to be replaced every 3-5 years).

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> And they are not famous for quality.

China's been making 50% of all our stuff for a few decades now. From the cheap knock-offs to the actual, high quality things.

China's "not famous for quality" because a lot of people don't want to pay for quality, but they can for sure make quality things.

Several of Huawei's phones had just been declared "the best phone hardware money can buy" by several big reviewers, just as they got hit by US sanctions last year, for example.

    China's "not famous for quality" because a lot of people don't want to pay for quality, but they can for sure make quality things.

Sure, and that's what I want to know - are the Chinese solar panels being used in the industry premium good quality ones are the cheaper low quality ones?

As with most of these things, it's probably both :-)

For example, Jinko solar's panels have leading conversion efficiency in the industry. I think that many international products that are made in china are low quality is because when international buyers procure from Chinese manufactures they tend to aim for lower costs, which results in lower quality and standards. You pay for what you get. Chinese companies of course will charge more for high quality, competitive and differentiated products. These products require R&D which can only be paid for with margins. http://www.jinkosolar.com/en/site/tigerpro

Everything I have read from manufacturers who bring their manufacturing back to the US and automate it say that Chinese manufacturing issues has to do with competence and training, and that you have to constantly watch for quality issues.

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