Flexible & Semi-Flexible Marine Solar Panels

Flexible marine solar panels are thin laminates with no glass sheet and no aluminum frame, so they can be laid on a bimini, dodger, cabin top or gently curved deck where a rigid panel will not fit or would add too much weight. Semi-flexible panels bend a few percent to follow a curve and are usually bonded or screwed down; fully flexible panels such as the Renogy 100W RNG-100DB-H flex much further, weigh about 4.2 lb.

Walk-on or not

Not every flexible panel can take foot traffic. The SOLARA Power M series and Standard M series have an aluminum or stainless backing plate and a textured, slip-resistant surface, and Solara rates them as walk-on panels for decks and cabin tops. Thin laminates such as the Solbian SP and SR panels and the Sol-Go Flex are made for biminis, dodgers and areas you do not normally walk on.

Cells and efficiency

The Sol-Go Flex 165W carries 47 SunPower Maxeon Gen 3 back-contact cells rated at 24%, and the Solara Power M series uses SunPower cells with 22%+ efficiency. Solbian's SR 240 uses Panasonic HIT heterojunction cells at 24%. Rigid glass panels still run cooler and cost less per watt, and a flexible panel bonded to a hot deck gives up some output, so allow a little extra wattage when you size the array.

Mounting

Panels with grommets can be screwed down, lashed or zipped to canvas: the Sol-Go has 10 stainless steel grommets and the Renogy has six metal-reinforced mounting holes. Solbian panels attach with double-sided tape, zippers or hook-and-loop, and Renogy recommends silicone structural adhesive for a permanent mount. Use an MPPT controller for higher-voltage panels such as the 28.6V Sol-Go on a 12V bank. Solbian backers and the Solara cell protector are in solar mounting hardware.

What is in this collection

• Solbian SP, SR, CP, SXP and ALLinOne panels from 23W to 240W, made in Italy
• SOLARA Power M and Standard M walk-on panels from 12W to 160W, made in Germany
• Sol-Go Flex 115W and 165W with SunPower Maxeon cells
• Xantrex Solar Max Flex 115W to 345W with ETFE top sheet
• Merlin Solar TBS Series 100W to 360W, plus 80W and 160W panels
• Renogy 100W, GIOCO 100W and Spectraflex 32W

All solar panels ship by pallet freight. Ask eMarine for help matching panel voltage to your charge controller and battery bank.