The number on the back of a solar panel is measured under Standard Test Conditions. A thousand watts of light per square metre, an air mass of 1.5, and a cell temperature of exactly 25 degrees.

Nigeria supplies the light generously. It does not supply the 25 degrees. On a roof in Ibadan at two in the afternoon the cell itself is running far above ambient, and silicon loses output as it heats.

That is not a defect and nobody is cheating you. It happens to every panel ever made. But it is the first thing to understand, because until you do, you are comparing prices against a figure neither panel will ever produce on your roof.

What actually costs you output

Heat. Every panel has a temperature coefficient, usually somewhere around minus 0.35 per cent per degree above 25. A panel running thirty degrees above test temperature is giving you meaningfully less than its label. Mounting with an air gap underneath is worth real watts. Panels laid flat on a hot roof with no ventilation are the worst case anyone can build.

Dust. Harmattan is a season-long tax on your output. A panel nobody washes loses a serious fraction of its production, and washing it back costs nothing but a morning.

Shading. Partial shade on one panel drags down a whole series string, because the string runs at the pace of its weakest member. One water tank shadow at four in the afternoon undoes more than people expect.

Angle. Flat is not optimal, and flat also means dust never washes off in the rain.

Size an array against real conditions and the system meets expectations. Size it against the label and you have an unhappy customer three weeks after commissioning, asking why the numbers do not match.

Monocrystalline or polycrystalline

Monocrystalline cells are cut from a single silicon crystal. They give more watts per square metre and they hold up better as temperature climbs. Polycrystalline is cheaper per watt at the factory gate and needs more roof to deliver the same output.

In Nigeria the argument usually settles on monocrystalline for two reasons. Roof area is a genuine constraint on most installations. And heat is guaranteed.

There is a third reason if you are shipping. Freight is charged on the space goods occupy, so fewer denser panels for the same output is also cheaper to land. That is why our range is monocrystalline panels and kits rather than a mixed catalogue.

Where the price difference actually hides

What varies	Why it matters here
Cell grade	Downgraded or B-grade cells sold at full rating. The panel underperforms from day one and no photograph will show it.
Frame rigidity	A thin frame flexes in transit and under wind load. Micro-cracks in the cells do not show, they just permanently reduce output.
Glass and lamination	Poor lamination lets moisture in over a few seasons. This is the difference between fifteen years and four.
Junction box and diodes	Cheap bypass diodes fail, and when they do, shading losses get considerably worse.
Packing	The largest single cause of loss on a panel consignment is breakage. Ask about corner protection and crate design before ordering.

Sizing, done in the right order

Panels are sized against daily energy consumption in kilowatt-hours. Not against your inverter’s wattage. The two are unrelated and confusing them is the most common design error we see.

Work out what you use in a day in watt-hours, which is each load’s wattage multiplied by the hours it runs. Divide by realistic daily sun hours for your location rather than by twelve. Add a margin for heat losses, dust, wiring and controller efficiency.

That gives array size. Battery capacity is a separate calculation and it answers how long you last without sun.

A borehole pump, a shop freezer and a base station are three completely different problems. Tell us the load and the duty cycle rather than asking for “a 5kVA solar”, which is a phrase that describes an inverter and says nothing about your array.

The controller is not an afterthought

The cheapest way to destroy a battery bank is to economise on the regulator sitting between the array and the batteries.

PWM is adequate on a small well-matched system. MPPT harvests noticeably more from the same panels, particularly on bright cool mornings and wherever array voltage sits well above battery voltage.

If the bank is lithium, the controller needs a lithium charge profile. Running lithium on a lead-acid profile is a way of paying for lithium and getting less than lead-acid life out of it. Our charge controller range covers both, and the kits ship with a waterproof controller included.

One policy question worth watching

A national ban on imported solar panels has been proposed and remains unresolved. It was still being contested at stakeholder level in February 2026.

It does not stop you importing panels today. It is a real consideration if you are planning a project over a longer horizon, and we will tell you where the position stands at the time you ask rather than at the time this was written.

If you are stocking rather than installing

Panels are the definition of awkward freight. Large area, modest value per cubic metre. Landed cost per watt is dominated by how efficiently the consignment packs and how full the container is, which makes buying a half-load of panels an expensive habit.

The minimum on our panels is 50 units, which is roughly the point at which the freight economics start making sense rather than an arbitrary threshold somebody picked.

Breakage in transit is the other thing that decides whether a consignment made money, which is why packing specification is agreed before the order rather than discovered on arrival.

Send us the load

Tell us what the system has to run and where it is going. We will specify panels, controller and battery capacity against it, confirm cell grade and packing with the supplier, and give you the landed figure in naira with every line itemised.

Panels and kits, charge controllers and inverters are all on the site, or ask on WhatsApp.