—Mainer

I have imported them into NZ , they are far superior to anything available locally. Twice the price of local but still below the Solbian price point.

I had to make a claim on my last install and they stood by their warranty and shipped a replacement unit from Europe to NZ at their own cost with no issues at all.

Matt

If its on your bimini,  then doesn't the size of the panel come into play?    In other words, only a certain size will fit?   Or is this on a rigid frame that can be adapted?

Mine are SR Solbian panels (flexible) on the canvas of the bimini in velcro pockets.  When I look at other panels every so often,  I check the sizes to see what a "next" setup might look like.   That said,   Solbian replaced all my panels 3 years ago as there was a defect that caused them to cloud up.    The new ones were the same size, but had a lot more watts.   For example,  my aft panels went from 160 to 186 watts.   The total array is close to 900 watts.

Please post how you end up.   Should be interesting. 

picture taken while crossing the corinth strait!

Nice.     

Looks like 4 are custom and 5 are rectangles that might have standard sizes available? Worth checking.  The four custom had to cost a lot more.  

This is ours.  All standard sizes. 

After getting the feedback from the forum (namely, Solbian’s great reputation for standing behind their warranty and warnings to make sure the dimensions of new panels match the Bimini), I had planned to go ahead and get Solbian replacements from our local dealer. When I reached out to them, though, I learned that because of the new tariffs, their cost was prohibitive and the dealer no longer kept them in stock (I could special order them if I wanted to but they wouldn’t get to me in time for our passage to the Caribbean). 

Instead, I decided to go with SolGo flexible panels from bluemarine. They had good reviews, the warranty looked very similar to Solbian’s, and the dimensions for the 192W panels matched what I measured for the Bimini Velcro where the SR160s had been. Conveniently, the price ($400/panel) was less than a third of what the Solbian would have been. I popped them in without needing to make any adjustments to the Bimini. They are 24 V panels so I installed a new Victron controller (MPPT 100/50) that allowed me to put them on a new circuit separate from the remaining SR144 installed on the Bimini. The capacity of this new controller should allow me to add two additional panels to the front of the Bimini once we get back to the US, raising our total nominal wattage to ~900 W. We made the passage to Antigua in December and the panels worked great — no issues. I’ll let you know if there are any surprises in the future. 

Thanks again to the forum for your valuable insights!!

—Mainer

Sounds like a good outcome.    I had many of the same Solbian panels you had.   Its good to know that if I have trouble, there are dimension similar options out there. 

One question:   You were dealing with a local supplier and they did not want to deal with the tariffs.  I can understand this.   Did you try to contact Solbian directly and see what they could do for you?    When I had my SR160 replaced with SR186 and my SR108s replaced with SR124s (etc.) I was dealing with Solbian directly.  

The cost you paid seems more than reasonable, but Solbian might have done something even if the local guy would not..

FWIW

I also dealt directly with solbian. but I confirm that 150W panels were indeed about 1000 eur in 2021..so the price difference may be there indeed. They could customise , obviously an important added value...

My dealings with Solbian were in 2021.     I have no idea what the tariff or price hikes have done to the economics.    

My *GUESS* is that most of the panels are made outside of the US, so its likely not good for those in the US, probably tolerable in other countries.