Many panel manufacturers today are competing for the bragging rights as to the most efficient solar panel. Below is a list of 5 manufacturers bringing to market some of the highest efficiency residential solar panels in 2020:
SunPower, in addition to regularly setting and re-setting the bar for the single highest efficiency panel on the market, has also positioned themselves as the premium equipment manufacturer across the board. With multiple offerings above 20% efficiency, you always know you’re considering a top tier panel when shopping Sunpower.
LG, ever since breaking into the solar market, has been expected to deliver high quality products. And while they have certainly delivered on those expectations since the beginning, they have really raised the bar recently with their NeON 2 series and NeON R series which feature modules surpassing 21% efficiency.
REC Founded in Norway in 1996, REC Group is the leading European brand for Solar panels and has been providing sustainable and high-performance products, services, and, investments for the solar industry for over 20 years. REC panels undergo stringent internal testing and third-party certifications, due to which the company touts that it has set the industry benchmark for quality. REC manufactures a wide array of panels, ranging in both efficiency and power. However, REC’s Alpha Series offers 5 panel options ranging from 360-380 W, all at above 20% efficiency and topping out at 21.7%. REC utilizes a unique, hybrid manufacturing technique referred to as heterojunction which combines crystalline and thin film material in order to deliver high density powered 60 cell panels.
Solaria strives to differentiate themselves through cutting edge technology. Unlike most solar panels, Solaria panels have no busbars which help to avoid failure points and efficiency loss, parallel substrings to improve efficiency in less optimal conditions, and patented technology that cuts solar cells into overlapped strips which leads to a sleek and unmatched jetblack aesthetic. Check out Solaria’s advanced panel technology to learn more.
Panasonic has a focus on quality over quantity. Since 1975, Panasonic has been at the forefront of research and development in the solar energy industry. It started with their work in amorphous solar cells, which are types of thin-film solar cells. Now, Panasonic’s solar offerings fall under the HIT trademark, featuring silicon heterojunction solar cell technology. With less residential panel offerings than other manufacturers, consumers can rest assured that any panel from Panasonic is going to score high on efficiency rating. Panasonic designs their panels via a unique pyramid structure, with bifacial cells and an innovative water drainage system; all to maximize efficiency. Whether it is their well known 330W panels at 19.7% efficiency or their newly released 340W panels at 20.3% efficiency, there’s never a question of quality when going Panasonic.

On average, one in three Africans has access to electricity – but this figure is strongly affected by a handful of countries that are doing exceptionally well in terms of providing electricity, such as South Africa (75 percent coverage) and Ghana (60 percent). Amongst Tanzania’s neighbors the situation is less impressive. Malawi and Uganda have even lower access rates (at nine percent), while Kenya and Zambia are doing only slightly better than Tanzania. Yet, Africa can look to achievements in other regions, where the majority of the population is connected to the electrical grid, including the developing countries of East Asia (more than 90 percent coverage) and South Asia (62 percent).

It is estimated that the electricity grid in Tanzania services only about 36% of the population.
Historically with the country very dependent on hydro-electric generation, prolonged periods of drought during the early years of the 21st century severely reduced electricity generation capacity (between 25% to 45%). In 2006, Tanzania suffered a series of crippling “load-shedding” or power-rationing episodes caused by a shortfall of generated power from the hydro-electric generating stations.
Today businesses in the country are predominantly dependent on expensive diesel-generated power.

************* Only 14 percent of the Tanzanian population has access to electricity in 2010.
************* Rural areas are virtually disconnected from the national electrical grid: Only three percent of people living in rural villages use electricity, while 95 percent use firewood for cooking.
************* Access to electricity is almost zero for the two poorest quintiles of households even in urban areas.
************* Annual electric power consumption stands at less than 90 kilowatt-hours per capita, just enough to power one light bulb per person for three hours every day.
************* Over the past decade, Tanzania has increased access to electricity at a rate of less than one percentage point per year. At this rate, it would take well into the 22nd century to achieve universal electrification.
************* When managers of firms are asked directly about the most serious problems they face in conducting business, electricity comes out as their number one concern. Almost 75 percent of Tanzanian enterprises consider routine load shedding and power outages as the most serious constraint to doing business, while another 15 percent mention it as a significant problem.---------------------------
Of course, there are a number of reasons why progress in improving access to electricity has been slow. Expanding the electric grid to remote rural areas requires significant upfront capital investments and public subsidies, which often conflict with funding to other well-needed public services and investments, such as education, health and road infrastructure. An increase in power access also requires substantial investments along the production chain and in the transmission to firms and households.

Mr. January Makamba is elected Member of Parliament and Minister of Energy in Tanzania. He had previously served as Minister of Environment and earlier Deputy Minister of Communication, Science and Technology. Mr. Makamba graduated from Saint John's University, in Minnesota, USA, with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies. And obtained a MSc in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason Universityin Virginia, USA. Previously he worked at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center (Carter Center) in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and in Sierra Leone. Mr. Makamba was also a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before joining the State House as Senior Aide to President Jakaya Kikwete until he was elected a Member of Parliament for his home-district of Bumbuli. In Parliament, before joining the government, Mr. Makamba served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Energy and Minerals. Mr. Makamba is a recipient of numerous recognitions including 2013 National Democratic Institute (NDI) Democracy Award for civic innovation. Mr. Makamba was also a Young Global Leader (YGL) of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow.