What is the difference between a performance & product warranty if you're buying a solar power system?

In the world of solar panels, there's a big difference between 25 years of performance warranty and 25 years of product warranty. A product warranty covers any issues with the system not performing as expected or ceasing to work altogether. In contrast, performance warranty is a grey area that can easily be twisted to avoid covering issues that arise.

What's needed is clear and defined product warranty, as opposed to the hot air and fancy words of performance warranty. When you buy a car, you don't get a performance warranty - you get a product warranty that covers a specific timeframe for any issues that may arise. The same should be true for solar panels.

So there's a big difference that needs to be explained in regards to 25 years performance warranty versus 25 years product warranty. Product warranty, that's it. Any issues that the system is not doing what it should be doing and it's died, or if it's greatly under-performing then you enact the product warranty, and have it sorted. Performance warranty is such a grey area that anybody with half a brain will be able to twist out and say, that's not really a performance issue, that's just because the panel's stopped working, that's outside of the warranted period or the warranted scopes, then there we go, it's all voided or not even eligible. Performance warranty, it's just hot air. It's just fancy words salespeople like to use to try to make something seem and appear to be bigger and better than it actually is.

The need for product warranty, clear and defined product warranty. You don't have performance warranties when you go and buy a car, it's a product warranty. It either has a three years or five years or seven years. Those are the warranty periods. So if you ever had any problems, that's the timeframe that you would expect the product to last as a bare minimum.