Is my solar panel kuput?

[Walrus]

My 100W flexible soalr panel has died. It's 3 1/2 years old. I noticed the junction box on it was loose so I took it off to re-fix it to the panel and tested it while it was off - nothing. The junction box is potted (to keep water out) so picked out the gunk and noticed that there are no blocking diode's in it. One of the foil connectors was torn, so thought Aha! and took the box off completely and retested... and I have nothing:


For comparison this is my potato 5w panel


Both pics taken seconds apart on a bright but cloudy day. There are no obvious signs of damage or hotspots. I would have thought the 100W panel would produce a little more voltage than the 5W one, given it is 20x the size. Any suggestions what I can do? Is it repairable? It may have been under warrantly (Biard flexible panels come with a 5 year warranty) but I have scuppered that by taking the box apart.

[LeeME3]

No suggestions really just to say i have had 2 Biard panels fail in the last few weeks - see post under "Installing Solar Power In a Westy".

I've come to the conclusion they are just not as robust as the rigid ones (and possibly prone to overheating which damages the tracks invisibly) and have swapped one for a rigid panel. given the mess it made removing the bonding agent the other one has stayed up there and i'll just get by on 100w for now.

[Walrus]

I've since replaced it with a Photonic Universe one - still flexible but this time it's on a plastic backing sheet. Currently working fine, getting ~2 Amps on a sunny day. The old one is in the shed - I might pick it apart to see if the cells can be salvaged/used elsewhere.

[California Dreamin]

Something wrong with your multimeter I would say! 100 watt panel reading 2 hundredths of a volt, 5 watt panel reading just a bit more, both MILES from where they should be.
Don't get mixed up between volts and current (amps) the 100 watt panel on a bright overcast day should be around 20 volts (1 - 3 amps in my experience) I'm not sure about the smaller panel but certainly over battery voltage (13 volts plus) otherwise the panel wouldn't charge.
This indicates a meter fault unless the both panels are faulty.
Amps is amount, volts is pressure..

Martin

[Walrus]

I thought of that too, so tested 2 meters on a battery first - both worked as expected (~13v IIRC).