{
  "entityType": "category",
  "id": "portable-solar-panels",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://agentretrievalindex.com/categories/portable-solar-panels/",
  "jsonUrl": "https://agentretrievalindex.com/categories/portable-solar-panels.json",
  "name": "Portable Solar Panels",
  "summary": "US-market standalone portable solar panels indexed from official manufacturer sources only. Rated power is always recorded and rendered as an STC laboratory figure, cell efficiency is published only where a manufacturer states a number, and compatibility with any particular power station is recorded only from official statements, never inferred from a connector type.",
  "intro": "This category covers solar panels sold on their own: foldable briefcases and blankets, rigid panels, and flexible laminates, one entity per officially named model. The distinction from RV solar kits is what ships in the box, and it changes what can honestly be said about the product. A kit includes a charge controller and wiring, so it is a system and can be described in terms of what it charges. A bare panel includes neither, so it has no storage, no inverter and no AC output, and its real behaviour depends entirely on the controller and battery it is eventually paired with. That is why records here publish rated power at Standard Test Conditions, cell type, form factor, connector and, where officially published, the electrical characteristics (Voc, Vmp, Imp, Isc), but never a daily watt-hour estimate: a figure like that would be inventing a system that the product does not contain. Two anti-hype rules are enforced by the schema. Cell efficiency is numeric-only, so 'high efficiency' marketing without a published percentage is a null rather than a value. And compatibility is recorded only from official statements, because a matching connector does not prove a voltage window is safe, and guessing there could damage a reader's equipment. Portable solar panels sit beside RV solar kits, battery power stations and portable generators as the component layer of the same decision: the part that puts energy back in, for people who already own, or intend to choose separately, the thing that stores it.",
  "attributes": [
    {
      "key": "rated_power_w",
      "label": "Rated power (STC)",
      "unit": "W",
      "description": "Nameplate output at Standard Test Conditions (1,000 W/m², 25 °C cell temperature). A laboratory benchmark, always lower in the field. No real-world output figure is published anywhere in this index."
    },
    {
      "key": "cell_type",
      "label": "Cell type",
      "description": "monocrystalline, polycrystalline, thin_film, or unknown."
    },
    {
      "key": "form_factor",
      "label": "Form factor",
      "description": "foldable_briefcase, foldable_blanket, rigid, or flexible."
    },
    {
      "key": "efficiency_percent",
      "label": "Cell efficiency",
      "unit": "%",
      "description": "Recorded only when the manufacturer publishes a number. Marketing adjectives are an honest null."
    },
    {
      "key": "electrical_characteristics",
      "label": "Electrical characteristics",
      "description": "Voc, Vmp, Imp and Isc, each null unless officially published. These are what determine whether a panel is safe for a given controller's input window."
    },
    {
      "key": "output_connector",
      "label": "Output connector",
      "description": "As the manufacturer names it (MC4, XT60, Anderson, DC5521, proprietary). A connector match is not a compatibility claim."
    },
    {
      "key": "charge_controller_included",
      "label": "Charge controller included",
      "description": "Normally false by definition of the category. Where a panel ships with one, the record must explain why it is indexed here rather than as a solar kit."
    },
    {
      "key": "official_compatibility_notes",
      "label": "Official compatibility statement",
      "description": "Verbatim manufacturer statements about what the panel officially works with. Never inferred."
    },
    {
      "key": "weight_kg",
      "label": "Weight",
      "unit": "kg"
    },
    {
      "key": "dimensions_folded_unfolded",
      "label": "Dimensions",
      "description": "Folded and unfolded footprints where published; the folded figure is what determines whether it actually travels."
    },
    {
      "key": "ingress_protection",
      "label": "Ingress protection",
      "description": "IP rating as published. Panels are frequently rated for the panel body only, not the connectors or controller."
    },
    {
      "key": "warranty_years",
      "label": "Warranty",
      "unit": "years"
    }
  ],
  "products": [],
  "comparisons": [],
  "updatedAt": "2026-08-02"
}