"Made in Germany" Solar Products

[kibsolar1999]

Reading papers, as eg, Kibrisgazete or CT, we can see that competitors advertise their Solar products as "Made in Germany" (and offer complete systems, of course).

for Solar PV panels we differ the following practices:
1. made in Asia (most of them in china) and declared to be made in Asia.

2. made in China , with NO declaration where they are made.
eg, in Cyprus available: AXITECsolar panels.
on the website, they call themselves a "high quality german solar brand".

3. made in China, but marketed by a german company (or subsidiary) which acts as a "buffer and-or distributor".
eg, in Cyprus available: AE-Solar panels, recently advertised.
= on the palets and maybe even on the panels, you find german contact telephone mumbers and even adresses.
on the web, AE-Solar advertises "german quality", but do NOT say that they offer "made in Germany".

we do find practices 2 and 3 misleading and '"not nice".
both practices, of course, work only for sales outside of europe, as a "declaration of origin" is mandatory in the eg, EU.
(of course, a "declaration of origin" is also necessary to show when you import goods to North Cyprus (eg, different import taxes) ... but this you never will see...)

4.1. Made in Germany: a few solar panel manufacturers are available. many "buy in asia and assemble panels only".
4.2. only one company produces "from sand to solar module", fully made in Germany.
research and development since many years = approved technology, durable, good or extraordinary panel output even in hot clima and-or after 25 or 30 years.
of course, these panels are a bit more expensive.

and if, finally, somebody tells you that there is "no difference" between german or china made (solar panels), they could advertise their products as made in china, or?

kibsolar1999

PS: as mentioned in "renewable energy" posts, a "standart" 3 kWp system with panels made in germany (4.2) will cost approx 5500 euros, a 5 kWp approx 7700 Euros.
"approx", because... we do offer "heavy duty" panels as well , designed for harsh environments as hot clima, close to sea and so on...

[aripointer]

As with many car parts and washing machines. It is the box they come in which is made in Germany not the contents in the box.

[oneillbox]

its all very misleading. Personally I associate German products with quality and efficiency, but not necessarily the cheapest.

Its a free world, if you want quality buy the german products but dig deep for them. If you want to gamble then buy the chinese stuff.

But products should be properly labelled and not aimed at misleading the purchaser.