Solar panel warranties explained: what the small print actually promises

Quick answer: Every solar quote carries four separate warranties: product (typically 12 to 25 years on the panels), performance (25 to 30 years, guaranteeing roughly 86% to 92% of original output at the end), inverter (5 to 25 years) and workmanship (minimum two years under the RECC code). The product warranty and the installer’s own guarantee matter most.

We haven’t tested these panels ourselves. Everything below comes from published warranty documents and manufacturer specifications, checked August 2026.

What are the four warranties on a solar quote?

A solar installation carries four separate warranties, from different companies, expiring at different times, with different small print. They do different jobs.

• Product warranty: the panel maker’s cover against physical defects such as delamination, cell cracking and junction box failures. This is the one that gets a faulty panel replaced.
• Performance warranty: the maker’s guarantee that output won’t fall below a stated floor over 25 to 30 years.
• Inverter warranty: separate, shorter, and usually from a different manufacturer entirely.
• Workmanship warranty: the installer’s own cover for the installation itself, including fixings, roof penetrations and wiring.

When someone says ‘solar panels come with a 25-year warranty’, they usually mean the performance warranty, which, as we’ll get to, is the least likely of the four ever to pay out.

How long are product warranties?

Product cover has stretched a long way in a few years. 25-year product warranties are now standard on mainstream N-type panels, where budget P-type panels carried 12 (SurgePV, checked August 2026). Maxeon sits alone at 40 years (OhmSnap), though that headline number comes with a company-survival caveat we cover below.

Figures from SurgePV and OhmSnap. If a quote features a 12-year product warranty in 2026, you’re being offered older P-type stock; our panel brand comparison shows what current ranges offer.

What does a 25-year performance warranty actually promise?

Less than the brochure implies. A performance warranty promises the panel can still produce a stated percentage of its original rated output, measured under standard laboratory test conditions. It says nothing about your actual generation, which shading, soiling, weather and inverter losses all affect and the warranty excludes.

The floor follows a degradation curve: a slightly larger allowed drop in year one, then a fixed annual decline, typically 0.40% a year on current N-type panels against around 0.55% on the older P-type generation (SurgePV). Jinko’s Tiger Neo, for instance, is warranted to 87.4% of original output at year 30.

A performance warranty guarantees lab-measured capacity, never the kWh figure in your monitoring app. To claim, a panel has to test below the floor, and in practice a panel that far gone is usually visibly faulty, which makes it a product warranty claim anyway. Our degradation guide shows what real-world decline looks like against these curves.

Why do inverter warranties matter more day to day?

Panels rarely fail. Inverters do, and their warranties are the short straw of the system. From UK Home Energy (checked August 2026): SolarEdge covers 12 years, extendable to 20 or 25 as a paid upgrade; Enphase microinverters carry 25 years, raised from 15 in late 2024; Fronius starts at 5 years, doubling to 10 with online registration; Fox ESS follows the same 5-to-10 registration pattern.

Two practical points follow. First, register the kit: Fronius and Fox ESS double their cover for the effort of filling in a form. Second, read quotes with the gap in mind. Against a 25-year panel warranty, a 5-year inverter warranty is the weakest link in most solar quotes. Plan for at least one inverter replacement in the system’s life; our inverter replacement cost guide and inverter brand comparison cover what that costs and who covers what.

What does the workmanship warranty cover?

Everything the manufacturers don’t: fixings, roof penetrations, flashing, DC wiring and the labour itself. It comes from your installer, and under RECC, one of the consumer codes MCS solar installers must belong to, it must run at least two years, though good installers offer five to ten (Smart Solar Homes).

Ask about an insurance-backed guarantee (IBG). Schemes on RECC’s list typically offer 2, 5 or 10 years of cover, with some running to 12 (RECC). An IBG keeps your workmanship warranty alive if the installer stops trading, and it’s the only one of the four warranties you can insure. Many need registering with the insurer before they take effect, so check the certificate actually arrives. Our MCS certification guide explains how the codes fit together.

What happens when the company behind the warranty disappears?

2026 keeps answering this question. GivEnergy, one of the biggest British battery and inverter names, filed for administration in April 2026, and its product warranties may rank as unsecured claims unless an administrator or buyer assumes them (ESS News). SunPower Holdings filed for Chapter 11 in August 2024; the brand relaunched under new owners in 2025, but the new SunPower is a dealer that no longer manufactures the original panels (OhmSnap). And Maxeon, maker of those 40-year-warranty panels, entered interim judicial management (Singapore’s court-supervised insolvency process) in April 2026, with Nasdaq moving to delist its shares and trading in them suspended from May (company announcement via The Globe and Mail).

A 40-year warranty is partly a bet that the manufacturer still exists in 2066. You can’t hedge that completely, but you can favour makers with scale, keep an IBG on the workmanship side, and treat warranty length as one factor rather than the deciding one. A panel keeps generating whether or not the company behind its paperwork survives. Our guide to what happens when your battery maker goes bust covers the storage side of the same problem.

FAQs

Do solar warranties transfer when I sell the house?

Generally manufacturer warranties stay with the panels rather than the person, but transfer and registration rules differ by brand. Pass the full document pack to the buyer and check the terms before you list.

Who do I actually claim from?

Your installer first; your contract is with them. If they’ve gone, go direct to the manufacturer for panel or inverter faults, and to the IBG insurer for workmanship problems.

Does a warranty replacement include labour and scaffolding?

Not always. Some manufacturer warranties cover replacement hardware but not the cost of getting it off and back on the roof, and scaffolding can cost more than the panel it serves. Check the terms before you assume.