There has been a shaking out period going on for a while in the solar industry. Big names like BP and Bosch have dropped their solar divisions, while other companies have just gone under like Konarka and of course, Solyndra (which never really was that big).
Well which manufacturers have not only held on, but are the most popular for solar installations in America’s largest solar market? We’re only looking at the last 2 years plus the first quarter of 2013. So that’s Jan 1, 2011 to Apr 17, 2013.
(click image to enlarge)
The chart above shows the top 10 most popular solar panel manufacturers by brand and number of installations in California. Comparing to our last post on the most popular solar panel brands, we can see that SunPower (with the highest efficiency) still reigns supreme.
Yingli Solar has jumped into second spurred on by low costs and quality design. Sharp, Suntech and Kyocera are still apart of the top 5 solar panel brands but keep an eye on Suntech which is in deep financial troubles and may be out of the game as of 2013.
Noticeably missing from this list are Sanyo and Evergreen which used to be the 7th and 8th most popular brands respectively. It seems despite Sanyo’s high efficiency, it can’t compete with SunPower’s ability to get it’s panels used in installations. Evergreen filed for bankruptcy. But don’t worry if you had Evergreen panels installed through Solar City. Solar City is still responsible for Evergreen’s warranties.
So there they are. The top 10 most popular solar brands in the last 2 (and 1/4) years.