Flexible Panel, aluminum frame, too compliant (flexy)?

[wicked1]

I just had a ~10 month old flexible panel fail.

I mounted it on a home made aluminum frame, consisting of 1/8" thick bars and longer 1/8" thick C channels. 4 bars crossing the short side. C channels making the long side. Panel bolted through its grommets and also taped to the cross bars.

It flexes a bit.. I've not seen it while driving, but could imagine the wind constantly vibrating around w/in its range of flex..

But, I basically copied what everyone else here did for mounting their panels. I'm curious if others have had any problems.


Something did happen to it, though.. I wouldn't think this could break it, but the timing is correct.

My son has a 'stomp rocket'.. Toy air powered rocket. They're light. Have a soft foam tip. Are designed to hit children in the head w/out damaging them. But, he launched that thing up and it landed right on one of my flex panels. And it was after that I noticed I wasn't charging as much.

 

[rando]

It is hard to say whether the mounting or the stomp rocket (doubtful) had anything to do with the failure, or the panel just failed. You can read numerous reports about semi-flexible panels dying in this thread: https://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/10808-ultimate-flexible-solar-panels-successes-and-warranty-replacements/

There was also recently another post about overland solar panels dying with in a year for no apparent reason.

I have installed 4 semi-flexible panels in the last decade (I really want them to work) and of the 4, I know 3 have died, and I don't know about the 4th as I sold the camper it was on. In all cases the panels were mounted to the roof, so no flexing, and they still prematurely died. While the weight saving and lower profile is really compelling, the reliability is just not there so I have gone back to a 160W rigid panel.

 

[wicked1]

Thanks for the info.

I guess I'll mention..

The panels are "Sol-Go", which are apparently about the same as sunpower. Couple people left sunpower and started sol-go, and use the same cells. I suppose I'll assume it was not the stomp rocket, and file a warranty claim.. See what happens.

I have an overland solar portable 'bugout 130' panel. In the hot summer, it was warping in very disturbing ways.. Like, the space between the cells didn't expand as much as the hot cells, and each individual cell was bent or poking up in the middle, etc. Pretty steep/sharp bends, too.. If that keeps up, I don't see how it could last. Oh, and if I took it out of the sun and it cooled quickly, it kept the bent up shape.. Then I'd have to put it back out in the sun to get flexible again, and neatly fold it up to put it away flat.