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Turns out those thin flim panels I found are discontinued (still a few in stock), so I'm not too excited there.
Brian, I would totally run solely on solar if I felt like I had the space for it. Unfortunately, for my power budget and climate that would be about 340W of panels that would take up way too much space for my taste (we're talking a 32' boat with lots of sail). Heck, I can't even imagine where I'd put all that! If I throw a Duogen on (lots on pro/cons here, not the least of which is price), I could drop that down to about 180W which is starting to seem reasonable with a couple of 60W panels off the stern and another one forward somewhere. All of which would be getting shaded somewhere. I may even just go with 120W of solar and expect to run the diesel to top off from time to time.
Safety is certainly a big concern. That's one of the reasons I'm willing to pay more for the Duogen as it seems much safer than several of the other windgens, and MUCH easier to retrieve than the other towed gens while also having less drag.
I do worry about safety even with solar though. What if one of those panels breaks loose or simply breaks? The thoughts of broken glass or flying panels in a storm is scary. Presumably overbuilt mountings and/or stowability should address this.
Solar is actually my first choice, too, but I'm hoping some great new thin film panels might be coming out in the next few years, so, I'm tempted to wait and see. Solar definitely has the best price per Amps generated per day even in my climate, although some of the cheaper wind gens come close. Still, there are many other considerations when living on a boat.
Cheers, Colin
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