TW Solar panels come from Tongwei, the world's biggest solar cell maker. Here is what the 2026 specs, warranty and price say, and how they sit beside AIKO.

TW Solar panels are made by Tongwei, a Chinese company that has shipped more solar cells than anyone else for eight years running and also makes its own polysilicon. The panels are a good value n type TOPCon module with a 30 year performance warranty, priced towards the budget end of the market, and the product warranty term is worth checking model by model. Against an AIKO back contact panel they give up a little efficiency, a little heat tolerance and a little shade tolerance, and they cost less. On a big, plain, unshaded roof that trade is often the right one.

Who Tongwei is

Tongwei was founded in 1982 and moved into solar in 2006. For most of that time it sold polysilicon and cells to other panel brands, so plenty of panels on Australian roofs already carry Tongwei cells under someone else's name. It has made modules under its own TW Solar name since the end of 2022, which makes it one of the few makers that controls the whole chain from purified silicon to finished panel. SolarQuotes puts its panel capacity at 90 GW a year as at June 2025.

pv magazine Australia describes Tongwei as a BloombergNEF Tier 1 supplier and a Fortune Global 500 company. Tier 1 is a bankability list, not a quality score: it says big project lenders are willing to finance the maker's panels. It is a useful sign of staying power, which matters for a 30 year warranty.

The Australian office question

For a panel brand, the warranty is only as good as the office that answers the phone here. Tongwei opened its Australian office in North Sydney in 2025, after its panels had been sold here for several years. SolarQuotes says it held back its recommendation until that office existed, and now lists TW Solar as an approved brand.

In May 2026 Tongwei Solar signed a national distribution deal with One Stop Wholesaler at the Smart Energy Conference, adding to Supply Partners, which already carries the panels from warehouses in Melbourne and four other cities. The local footprint is real now, but it is young. AIKO, by comparison, has had a Melbourne office since March 2024.

The panel most homes would get

The TW Solar panel built for Australian roofs is the TWMNH-48HE470, launched here in October 2025. It is a full black, dual glass panel in the standard residential size, so it fits the same racking layout as most panels on the market. The headline figures from the launch:

470 W at 23.5% module efficiency
1762 by 1134 by 30 mm, 22.8 kg
2 mm tempered glass front and back, black anodised frame
temperature coefficient of minus 0.28% per degree
passed hail testing with 44.9 mm hailstones at 110 km/h, and cyclone rated
a 30 year performance warranty, with output guaranteed at no less than 87.4% after 30 years
a product warranty announced at launch as 25 years

That last line needs a careful read. The launch coverage and SolarQuotes both give 25 years on the product. Tongwei's own Australian warranty document dated 30 May 2025, which names the TWMNH-48HE series, lists it under a 15 year product warranty, and lists its large commercial modules under 12 years. The launch came after that document, so a newer one may well exist, but until you have the warranty for your exact model in writing, treat the product term as something to check on the quote rather than assume.

A 440 W version was already on sale at the launch. At All Energy Australia in Melbourne in October 2025 Tongwei also showed a TNC 2.0 G12R-48 module of up to 475 W and 23.8% efficiency in full black and black frame versions, and the large TNC G12 modules for solar farms.

TW Solar beside AIKO

We compared the two in our AIKO field notes. Here is the short version, on the published figures for the two residential panels in the same 1762 by 1134 mm footprint.

Power. The TW panel is 470 W. AIKO's all black Neostar 3S54 runs from 460 to 490 W in the same frame, so on a full roof AIKO fits a little more power, not a lot more.
Heat. TW's minus 0.28% per degree against AIKO's minus 0.26%. Over a hot January afternoon in Castlemaine that is about one percentage point of output, real but small.
Shade. A TOPCon panel like the TW has the normal three bypass diode layout and loses more than a back contact panel when one or two cells are shaded by a vent pipe or a flue. Once a whole row is shaded, both behave the same.
Hail. TW's dual glass panel was tested at 44.9 mm. AIKO's Neostar panels are certified for 40 mm hail at 27.5 metres a second. Both are well beyond the 25 mm standard test.
Weight. Dual glass makes the TW heavier, 22.8 kg against AIKO's 20.6 kg on the mono glass model. On an older roof frame that is worth checking.
Degradation. TW's performance warranty allows 1% in year one and 0.4% a year after that. AIKO allows 1% then 0.35%, finishing higher at year 30.
Price. SolarQuotes calls TW Solar decent panels priced towards the budget end. It puts AIKO Neostar at about $0.32 to $0.44 per watt including GST in October 2026.

Where a TW Solar panel is the right call

A good value panel is not a second best panel. It is the right panel when the roof is not the limit.

a large north facing roof with no chimneys, vents or trees, where one extra panel costs less than the efficiency gap
a ground mount on a farm, where there is no shortage of space and no roof shade at all
a shed roof where the array is there to run pumps and coolrooms and the look does not matter
a budget where the money is better spent on battery capacity than on panel efficiency

Where we would still lean to AIKO: a tight roof, a roof broken up by chimneys and vent pipes like many older homes in Daylesford and Trentham, a heritage street where the all black look matters, or a customer who wants the longest performance warranty available. Our AIKO brand page covers why.

What we look at before choosing any panel

The brand matters less than the layout. Before we pick a panel we measure the shade on the roof through the year, split the array by orientation, check the panel's current against the inverter's MPPT limits, and check the roof frame for the weight. If you want to see both options in dollars and kilowatt hours for your roof, send us a recent bill and your address and we will come back with a right sized design, or start with our on grid solar page.

Questions

Are TW Solar panels Tier 1?

pv magazine Australia describes Tongwei as a BloombergNEF Tier 1 supplier. That list measures whether banks will finance a maker's panels on large projects, not panel quality.

Who makes TW Solar panels?

Tongwei, a Chinese company founded in 1982 that is the world's largest solar cell maker by shipments and one of the largest polysilicon producers. TW Solar is its own panel brand, made since the end of 2022.

What is the TW Solar warranty in Australia?

The TWMNH-48HE470 has a 30 year performance warranty. Its product warranty was announced as 25 years, but Tongwei's May 2025 Australian warranty document lists that series at 15 years and its commercial modules at 12, so ask for the current warranty for the exact model on your quote. Claims go to your installer first, then to Tongwei's North Sydney office.

Are TW Solar panels good in hail?

The full black dual glass panel passed a test with 44.9 mm hailstones at 110 km/h, and the TNC 2.0 range has test data at 45 mm. That is well beyond the 25 mm standard test and suits a region like the Macedon Ranges that sees damaging hail.

Sources

Written by the Trentham Energy team.

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TW Solar panels in Australia: who makes them and how they compare with AIKO