NAME BRAND
Level Of Importance # 1
Why Is It Important ?
With the flood of solar panels that are entering the U.S. market that are coming hundreds of tiny, financially unsound overseas manufacturers, it is important that you stick with the big name brands. By the term "big name brands" we mean large publicly traded or large U.S. based manufacturers.
The reason for this is simple. If a catastrophic manufacturing defect were to occur and a major portions of a manufacturer's production were to result in a recall, it would be highly unlikely that a small privately held overseas company would be able to survive the replacement of even a moderate portion of their production. In a case like this most of these small manufacturers would simply file bankruptcy and would re-open under a different name, which would result in the loss of your warranty protection.
A larger publicly traded or U.S. based manufacturer would be far more likely to posses the financial strength to honor their warranty.
Case in point: REC® Solar, a very large and very reputable European solar manufacturer began selling solar modules in the U.S. about two years ago. A few months ago in 2009 it was announced that the junction boxes that they were using had a serious defect which affected approximately 420,000 solar panels which represents about a quarter of their 2007 production and nearly all of their 2008 production. REC® Solar has accepted full responsibility and has launched a recall and will repair or replace all of the affected modules. Now keep in mind REC® Solar is one of the world's most well funded companies that uses the latest high tech manufacturing equipment available. This will cost REC® Solar approximately $56 million dollars to correct.
If you purchased non name brand solar panels that were manufactured by a small underfunded company in an attempt to save a few nickels per watt, and this would have happened, even on a much smaller scale, the plain and simple reality would be that your chances of having your defective solar panels replaced under warranty would be almost zero.