Picked up some antiques today - ARCO M61 and 16-2000

[peakbagger]

I think they are from the quad lam era but definitely arent toasted tan or brown like the few quadlams I have seen over the years. I think they were in a barn for a long time out of the sun, the backsheets looks like they bore the brunt of the storage. The frames are beefy, even beefier than Siemens (Siemens bought ARCO) models from just a few years later, it is a standard aluminum angle iron extrusion with an inner circular stiffener built into the angle. I dont have a way of measuring the cell thickness but by the looks of the backsheet the cells appear to be much thicker. I think they were still buying surplus wafers from the semiconductor industry at that time. Various reports at the time was ARCO lost money on every panel they built and and finally the CEO cut the cord.

Not much for info on the back of the panels compared to the later Siemens, just a small tag with model number, company name and address. No junction boxes just a threaded rod that runs from the front to the back of the panel on opposite diagonal corners.

The little info on the web is they are probably 40 plus years old at this point. I havent found a spec sheet but there is article about a person in VT who tested the identical module in 2010 when it was 30 years old and still put out above the rated output. Most of these seemed to sell in CA although I have seen some in early solar traffic warning signs. My guess is the way they are built they could take quite a hit before breaking. The other use seemed to be marine and the coast guard used racks of them to automate lighthouses. I saw a reference to $300 a panel for what were 33 watt panels. So less than $10 bucks a watt. I think my 20 plus year old Sharp solar panels were a "steal" at $6.25 a watt.

I will probably make up a cellphone charger with one or two of them with parts I have kicking around just to prove that old panels dont suddenly stop working after 20 years. Now I just need to come up with a dummy load to do a load rating.

[littleharbor2]

I think they are from the quad lam era but definitely arent toasted tan or brown like the few quadlams I have seen over the years. I think they were in a barn for a long time out of the sun, the backsheets looks like they bore the brunt of the storage. The frames are beefy, even beefier than Siemens (Siemens bought ARCO) models from just a few years later, it is a standard aluminum angle iron extrusion with an inner circular stiffener built into the angle. I dont have a way of measuring the cell thickness but by the looks of the backsheet the cells appear to be much thicker. I think they were still buying surplus wafers from the semiconductor industry at that time. Various reports at the time was ARCO lost money on every panel they built and and finally the CEO cut the cord.

Not much for info on the back of the panels compared to the later Siemens, just a small tag with model number, company name and address. No junction boxes just a threaded rod that runs from the front to the back of the panel on opposite diagonal corners.

The little info on the web is they are probably 40 plus years old at this point. I havent found a spec sheet but there is article about a person in VT who tested the identical module in 2010 when it was 30 years old and still put out above the rated output. Most of these seemed to sell in CA although I have seen some in early solar traffic warning signs. My guess is the way they are built they could take quite a hit before breaking. The other use seemed to be marine and the coast guard used racks of them to automate lighthouses. I saw a reference to $300 a panel for what were 33 watt panels. So less than $10 bucks a watt. I think my 20 plus year old Sharp solar panels were a "steal" at $6.25 a watt.

I will probably make up a cellphone charger with one or two of them with parts I have kicking around just to prove that old panels dont suddenly stop working after 20 years. Now I just need to come up with a dummy load to do a load rating.

Good score for a vintage PV collector. The Tri-lams and Quad -lams were sold in 4 grades when they dismantled the Carrizo plain experiment. They were rated Gold, Silver, Bronze and Mud grade. Some of the panels were exposed to concentrated sunlight by using mirrors. These were the ones that bronzed over the worst. I think they learned that the encapsulant material they were using was not totally impervious to solar exposure and needed to develop better formulations.

[peakbagger]

Some of my later Siemens panels sourced from a couple of places have mixed levels of delamination around the cell traces but no significant browning. I do have one that has been in service to run my solar hot water heater circulation pump for 20 years that definitely is clouded up.

The quad lams were reportedly installed with trackers and mirrors to double the insolation. Plus they were installed in desert so ambient temps were quite high. I have heard of burning in electronics but guess this went way past that

[littleharbor2]

Funny thing, here in Baja I see lots of the Arco panels still in service. In my Campo alone there are dozens, including Quad and Tri-lams all browned out and still working. There is still no power grid in our area so as soon as solar became a thing it took off down here.

Lots of old Trace controllers and inverters still working after all these years. This is the reason many folks are still running 12 volt systems. These Trace components refuse to die and people cant see buying new equipment while what they have still works. It's the old, "If it aint broke why fix it "scenario.