<p style="text-align: left;">It is essential yet complicated to understand the terms &lsquo;Tier 1&rsquo; and &lsquo;Tier 2&rsquo; solar panels. A number of solar power salespeople are quick to drop these names but have little understanding of what they actually mean and more importantly, what it means to their customers. For a better understanding of the said terms, we need to dive a little deep into the history of it all. A few years ago, Germany was quick to pick up on solar technology and contemplated the future in this source of alternative power. In order to capture the majority of the European market, a number of German companies commenced their productions of solar energy panels. Just like any regular company, a solar company too needs finances and has to ensure a bank that they are worth investing into. This can be a challenge when the technology is relatively new and the knowledge of the same is limited or scarce amongst the financial institutions. To solve this, major banking and financial institutions of Germany came up with a set of benchmarks for the solar panel manufacturers. The said benchmarks were set at a very high standard of quality; nevertheless, the solar panel manufacturing companies met them in order to obtain the much-needed finances to run their business. The German banks referred to these successful companies as having &lsquo;bankability.&rsquo; The scaling of the benchmarks set by the German banks was on three levels. &lsquo;Tier 1&rsquo;, &lsquo;Tier 2&rsquo;, and &lsquo;Tier 3&rsquo;, wherein &lsquo;Tier 1&rsquo; was the highest level and was the only level that was able to be recognized by the German banks as laudable for any form of financial investment. Once the tier system was in place the benchmark system became a very helpful instrument for providing assurance to the consumer that the products they were buying were at a distinct level of quality. Here are the differences between the Tier 1 manufacture and the lower levels -Tier 1 manufactures of solar panels have to meet the following requirements:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The manufacturing process is subject to very strict and regular audits The rigorous testing of the panels is done on recognized German manufactured equipment The manufacturer must be vertically integrated (i.e. they are involved in more than one value chain)&nbsp; There must be a demonstration of a large amount of leading-edge research and development. The company has been involved in at least 3 major projects of over 1.5 megawatts</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The production capacity of the manufacturer must be over 1 GigaWatt of power per year. The viewpoint following such soaring benchmarks is that the elevated volumes in production will affect intolerances in manufacturing eminence being very rigid and therefore giving the customer the reassurance of knowing they are buying the best solar panels in the world today. A Tier 2 manufacture is a much smaller company. The 3 main characteristics that define a Tier 2 manufacturer are:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">They invest in little if any research and development. The company relies on larger manufacturers to advance solar power technology.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The only part of their manufacturing plant is robotic. Tier 1 manufacturers are almost completely robotic to ensure very high levels of consistency in quality. Tier 2 level manufacturers do not have this capability in their production.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">They have a track record of production of only 2 to 5 years. Tier 1 manufacturers are far more established.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">A Tier 3 is even smaller than the Tier 2 and has the following 4 main characteristics that define them:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">They have no research or development ability.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">They assemble the panels and have no ability to manufacture the silicon cells.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Human production lines are utilized as they do not have any advanced robotics within their plant.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The company has been in operation between 1 to 2 years.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">A word of advice, many companies claim they use Tier 1 panels but fail to state which manufacturer made them. It is always important to know who made the panels and they should be labelled with the name of the manufacturer.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">When you talk to Solar light energy we are proud to state the brand of panels we install because we only use Tier 1 quality for our customers. It is this commitment to quality that has made Solar light energy the number one installer in Australia.</p>