Kyocera was founded in 1959 and began researching photovoltaics in 1975. Based in Kyoto, Japan, this company has recently announced plans to triple its solar cell production.
The popularity of Kyocera solar panels can be explained by the balance they have achieved between a quality product and a reasonable price.
Though not quite as high-efficiency as Sanyo and SunPower, they will save you money and do a great job for you if you are not working with very limited space.
(The main advantage of the higher-efficiency panels is being able to fit your required watts in a smaller space).
Kyocera's panels are coated with the company's d.Blue surface treatment (named for its dark blue color). This treatment minimizes surface reflectance and has allowed Kyocera panels to reach a conversion efficiency of 16%.
Also, the dark blue treatment with Kyocera's black module frames make for a pretty stylish panel.
The d.Blue modules (135, 180, and 205-watt) also feature multi-contact output cables, a heavy-duty aluminum frame, and a 20 year power output warranty.
Are you ready for some Kyocera panel stats? I'll keep this as user friendly as possible because I know not everybody loves statistics.
Note: If you want to know more about what these stats mean check out
solar panel info
(it will open in a new window so you can go back and forth).
Now, onto the stats...
Rated Power at STC (Standard Test Conditions) This will be the "advertised" wattage of the panel you're looking at (e.g. 180 watt or 205 watt).
Rated Power Tolerance (%) +/-5%
Rated Power Per Sq. Ft. (Watts) KD130SX - 12.0 KD135SX - 12.5 KD130GX - 12.0 KD135GX - 12.5 KD180GX - 12.6 KD205GX - 12.8 KD210GX - 13.1
