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One thing right at the beginning, there is nothing like "the world's best solar panels for everyone." It makes a big difference whether you want to generate electricity for your home and even feed surplus capacity in the power grid or if you want to charge a car battery now and then. And producing hot water from a solar installation needs actually a complete different technology. In narrower sense those so called "thermal solar collectors" or "solar collectors" are not even proper solar panels. So what's the difference?

Solar panels (photovoltaic panels, photovoltaic modules) convert shortwave radiation, e.g. parts of the sunlight, into electrical power. They consist of interconnected solar cells which are protected by a range of different materials. The surface is transparent and the solar panel is framed, mostly in an aluminum frame.

Solar collectors on the other hand, are a system of liquid filled tubes. Sunlight heats up the tubes and the liquid. A heat exchanger now transfers the heat to the facility water circuit for warm water and heating. Since this article discusses "best solar panels" let's get back to generating electricity out of sunlight and save solar collectors for another article.

Before you purchase solar panels make sure you take a close look at the Solar Panel Specification Sheet. It gives you vital details of the particular solar module and helps you choose the best solar panels for your purpose. You may want to look especially at the following data: