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Do the LG NeON Black perform well in hot weather?

Normally full black panels loose performance on hot days – as obviously the black colour attracts more heat retention. Hot solar panels perform less efficient than cooler panels under the same sun irradiation levels.

The 300W LG NeON2 Black (see datasheet) has been designed for prestigious homes with great looks and it is also one of the best performing panels in Australia. The model has 12 multi-wire busbars – compared to the normal panel 3 or 4 busbars. As I will explain below – this means performance in high temperatures, even being full black are excellent and superior to some of the conventional panels. The NeOn2 Black also have N type, double sided wafers, not P type or polly wafers. N type perform better in heat and have a lower long term degradation factor.

In layman’s explanation… cells kind of become sticky for electrons when heat increases and therefore electron flow to the busbars, which are the superhighways that carry the electricity away - slows down and therefore output is negatively affected. As the NeON2 have 12 busbars (superhighways ) per cell the distance each electron has to travel to be “harvested” is less and therefore the effect of heat on the panels performance is significantly reduced.

Normally panels have to indicate on their datasheet their temperature co-efficency , which is the performance they experience in heat (see here the LG NeON 2 black number being -0.38%/C for Pmax) . The lower the number , the better the performance in heat. Normal polly panels usually have a temperature co-efficency of -0.43 and some better ones -0.42 or -0.41. -0.3 8 is the best temperature co-efficency of any panel on the Australian market and is only equalled by other top quality panels.

temp co-efficient for NeON2 black

In summary – yes conventional black panels can perform less in hot weather, but NeON 2 Black due to inbuilt new multi-wire busbar technology (we are 1st panel to have this on the market in Australia and NZ) does perform highly efficient even in very hot weather. Overall NeON 2 and NeON2 Black are some of the highest performing panels on the market.

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