A tip on solar panel efficiency: generally monocrystalline panels are highest, followed by polycrystalline, and flexible silicon amorphous panels are significantly lower than those (but more shade tolerant). For boats efficiency is important because we only have so much space, and more efficient panels produce more power from that space. On a house, who cares? Just add another panel or two.
A shadow covering 5% of a panel could cut output by about 90% so try very hard not to shade them. Also if you wire them in parallel, a shadow on one panel will not affect the others, but if they are wired in series (like they probably are on all of our boats to get up to 48v) a shadow on one reduces output of the whole array. Getting higher voltage panels might be a good idea.
I have an MSc in sustainable energy engineering and know more about PV than electric motors and props for example if anyone has specific questions about energy generation.
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