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Cells with a high cosmetic quality have slight color variations on the front side. After laminating, the color of the solar cells has a dark appearance even with a black background. Cells with a moderate cosmetic quality have some color variations on the front side. After laminating, the color variations on the cells became less obvious but are often still visible when inspected from short distances.

PV solar panels are like puzzles made of tiny solar cells, enclosed in glass. These cells are made of silicon, a bit like computer chips. They have a positive part and a negative part that work together to make electricity, kind of like a battery. SunPower solar panels also have special adhesives and coatings to protect these cells and keep them working well even in different weather conditions.

There are a variety of key technical differences between SunPower Performance solar panels and Conventional Panels, including the design and layout of the solar cells and the electric architecture—which combine to enhance the reliability, performance and aesthetics of Performance panels.

To go into a bit more technical detail, first, we laser cut each SunPower Performance cell into strips and layer them in a shingled configuration to create a ‘hypercell’. This shingled hypercell allows us to fit more active cell area into each panel, boosting power and efficiency. Second, Performance cells are connected with a flexible joint interconnection to offer multiple and redundant paths for energy flow. This allows us to remove the front contact conductive ribbons and solder bonds found in conventional cells that can block active cell area and deteriorate over time, leading to cell failures and power deficits. Finally, SunPower Performance panels feature a unique parallel circuit architecture that significantly limits power loss in shade and soiling. The result is a superior shingled panel constructed with commodity cells, outperforming conventional panels in efficiency, performance and reliability.

SunPower® Performance solar panels use high efficiency mono PERC cells, while Maxeon panels use SunPower's proprietary back contact technology developed for our Maxeon panels.