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Rankings

The best solar panels, ranked from their datasheets

There is no best panel, only a best panel for a constraint. Each ranking below fixes one - the roof is small, the summers are hot, the array sits over gravel - and orders the whole catalogue by the figure that constraint turns on.

Every ranking is the panel database with one ordering applied and, where the topic needs it, one filter locked. The filters, the sort and the columns are the same on all of them, so a ranking is somewhere to start rather than somewhere to be kept.

Rankings
5
one per constraint
Panels ranked
14,133
every model with a datasheet
Manufacturers
190
with published specifications
Temperature coefficient
-0.22%/°C
best in the catalogue
Power density
252Wp/m²
best in the catalogue
Efficiency
25.1%
best in the catalogue
01

Pick the constraint

Each tile leads with the figure its ranking is ordered by, taken from the panel currently at the top of it.

Best panels for hot climates Ranked by Pmax temperature coefficient, least negative first. Panels run 20 to 50 degrees hotter than the air around them, so this is the figure that decides summer output. Leader-0.22 %/°C Best panels for small roofs Ranked by power density in watts per square metre. The figure that matters when the roof, not the budget, is the constraint. Leader252 Wp/m² Best bifacial panels Dual-sided modules only, ranked by front-side efficiency. What the rear face adds depends on the ground under the array, so the front is what can be compared. Leader25.1 % Best TOPCon panels TOPCon cells only, ranked by efficiency. The n-type architecture most of the market has moved to: higher efficiency, cooler running and slower degradation than PERC. Ranked byEfficiency Panels with the longest warranty Ranked by performance warranty length - the guarantee on output, which is the longer of the two terms and the one that is usually meant by "25 years". Leader40 years The whole catalogue No ranking applied: every panel, every filter, sortable on any column. Where to go when the constraint is not one of the five above. Panels14,133
02

Strongest overall

Open the catalogue

The composite ranking, which weighs efficiency, power density, heat behaviour and warranty together rather than optimising for one of them.

Top 10 overall composite score
1 AIKO AIKO-A805-GRH78Dw 805 Wp 25.1% 2 AIKO AIKO-A800-GRH78Dw 800 Wp 24.9% 3 AIKO AIKO-A795-GRH78Dw 795 Wp 24.8% 4 MY Solar MS740N-HJTGB 740 Wp 23.8% 5 MY Solar MS735N-HJTGB 735 Wp 23.7% 6 AIKO AIKO-A790-GRH78Dw 790 Wp 24.6% 7 AE Solar CME-132BDS-730 730 Wp 23.5% 8 MY Solar MS730N-HJTGB 730 Wp 23.5% 9 Recom RCM-730-8DBNM 730 Wp 23.5% 10 AIKO AIKO-A785-GRH78Dw 785 Wp 24.4%
Nine of the top 10 panels come from three manufacturers - AIKO, MY Solar and AE Solar.
03

How a ranking is built

One catalogue, one ordering

A ranking is the panel database sorted differently. It is not a shortlist somebody curated, and no panel is placed on it by hand or kept off it.

Missing figures are missing

A panel that does not publish the figure a ranking turns on is absent from that ranking rather than assumed to sit at the bottom of it. That is why the counts differ between rankings.

Nothing is paid for

No placements are sold. The shop links that earn us a commission are marked affiliate where they appear, and no ranking reads them. Each power rating is its own module on the datasheet, so a strong series can hold several places; the rear-side-gain variants one bifacial datasheet quotes are not separate modules and are left out.

Elsewhere Panel database14,133 Best panels Compare panels Manufacturers190 Panel comparison calculator