The main difference between the two technologies is the type of silicon solar cell they use.
Mono vs poly solar panels shading.
It is mainly used in large scale commercial applications.
Thin amorphous film panel output is supposed to increase with age and heat where as output on mono poly crystalline panels loose some output with heat and time.
Thin film technology costs less than mono or poly panels but is also less efficient.
There were a number of reasons for this thinking.
A mono solar panel is made with high quality silicon manufactured with intricate patterns across the surface making them easy to differentiate from poly solar panels.
So monocrystalline solar panels will usually have a higher power output rating than either polycrystalline or thin film modules.
Monocrystalline solar panels have solar cells made from a single crystal of silicon while polycrystalline solar panels have solar cells made from many silicon fragments melted together.
The older of the two mono panels are the most developed type of photovoltaic panel cells.
N type cells are more resistant to light induced degradation than p type cells.
When solar pv first boomed in australia in 2009 2010 monocrystalline solar panels were thought to be superior to polycrystalline solar panels.
They typically perform better than polycrystalline alternatives albeit by a small amount.
Advantages of mono solar panels.
Most panels these days have bypass diodes to help with partial shading so you don t looses all the output.
This silicon is then cooled and finally sliced into square wafers creating the polycrystalline shape.
Monocrystalline solar cells have historically had a higher peak efficiency and were more readily available than polysilicon solar cells.
Monocrystalline solar cells are more efficient because they are cut from a single source of silicon.
Amorphous solar panels.
Polycrystalline solar cells are blended from multiple silicon sources and are slightly less efficient.
In other words you would need less monocrystalline solar panels in your solar power system to generate the same amount of power that say a greater number of polycrystalline solar panels would.
So that briefly covers monocrystalline vs polycrystalline.
Looking at mono vs poly solar panels you can see that mono crystalline panels have a smoother more uniform appearance than poly crystalline panels.
You can find a more in depth comparison of mono vs poly solar panel here.
Crystalline panels do not perform as well in partial shading compared to amorphous cells and they do gradually lose a small percentage of output as the temperature rises above 25 c.
See an example of monocrystalline cells below.
