Low Light PV Panels for Oregon Residents

[Naptown]

Some of the information is available from the web sites of the winners. No details on the test conditions, etc. but the raw results are still helpful.

Don't actually count in the REC as that module is not in production.
I would post the article but copyright infringement would rear it's ugly head.

[PNjunction]

I do the camping thing. I take thin-film foldables with me for a reason. My crystalline panels stay at home.

One important thing to know about the thin-film hype is this:

On a cloudy day, when shadows just barely appear, the crystallines I have will put out about 1/10th of their rating. Thus, a 100 watt panel becomes 10 watts.
With my thin-film on a totally cloudy day, my panel will turn into about 1/7th to maybe 1/5th of it's original rating.

It helps, but we're still in the woods from a practical standpoint because you design your system around a decent current level, not at these puny amounts.

Where the thin-film shines while camping, is when a shadow crosses it or covers up a small portion of it. Only that portion that is covered up, goes to sleep essentially. With a crystalline panel, if a cell gets covered, the whole panel essentially drops to nothing. Unfortunately, thin-film is about 1/3rd larger in area than a crystalline, so your chances of rogue shadows crossing it is greater!

My favorite for camping style thin-film is PowerFilm. Open your wallet for these. But not yet until you read some more and decide if the venture is even feasible.

At the end of the day though, if you don't have any sun, no matter what panel you choose, you are in a world of hurt.

One thing you can do is if you do get any small amount of sun at all, is use an AGM battery which allows you to put a lot of current into it in a short amount of time - but of course this means a lot of panel power, and generally a smaller battery than normal so you may have to radically adjust your power budget down.