Performance Guarantee - What is it good for?

[mrrsposton]

Hello,

I am evaluating some quotes from various vendors. A full service vendor is offering a performance guarantee of the panels, that degrades over 20 years by a reasonable amount per year. The guarantee seems to be about 95% of the estimated array throughput (e.g., 10,000 kWh per year estimate, guarantee 9,750), creating a reasonable 5% contingency for them. If they miss the mark, they will reimburse you for the difference - presumably the miss in kWh multiplied by local electrical rates, needs fine print verification. They said it doesn't matter if you have abnormal weather patterns, like increased cloudiness.

What are people's experiences with a performance guarantee? Do a lot of companies offer this?

I think the most important components of my assessment is the equipment that they are using and price. However, should a performance guarantee impact my evaluation criteria, or in the words of Tommy Boy, do I just end up with a guaranteed piece of crap?

Thanks,
RSP

[Naptown]

The Tommy Boy analogy is probably the case.
I stopped doing them as it really was a worthless guarantee.
If you read the fine print any over generation in previous years counts toward the guarantee.
It is simply a sales gimmick designed to make the unaware feel better
In reality it is structured so as to never have to pay a claim.

[solar pete]

Hello,

I am evaluating some quotes from various vendors. A full service vendor is offering a performance guarantee of the panels, that degrades over 20 years by a reasonable amount per year. The guarantee seems to be about 95% of the estimated array throughput (e.g., 10,000 kWh per year estimate, guarantee 9,750), creating a reasonable 5% contingency for them. If they miss the mark, they will reimburse you for the difference - presumably the miss in kWh multiplied by local electrical rates, needs fine print verification. They said it doesn't matter if you have abnormal weather patterns, like increased cloudiness.

What are people's experiences with a performance guarantee? Do a lot of companies offer this?

I think the most important components of my assessment is the equipment that they are using and price. However, should a performance guarantee impact my evaluation criteria, or in the words of Tommy Boy, do I just end up with a guaranteed piece of crap?

Thanks,
RSP

Hi RSP and welcome to Solar Panel Talk, in my limited experience I have concluded that companies generally set the performance guarantee low enough so that its very unlikely it will ever come back to bite them. Cheers

[mrrsposton]

Hi RSP and welcome to Solar Panel Talk, in my limited experience I have concluded that companies generally set the performance guarantee low enough so that its very unlikely it will ever come back to bite them. Cheers

So it sounds like Performance Guarantee, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Thanks for the responses.

[Justjames]

I for one got a quote with that performance gurantee and think it is worthless. Anyway almost all solar panel also come with mfg performance guarantee anyway. Better look at fine print some company offer only 60% of what performance estemated.