Solbian v. alternatives

—Mainer

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. 

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