Wire Types ยท Solar PV
We buy solar PV cable.
PV wire is short, bright and often still coiled: fifty feet of 10 AWG left from a string, a part reel of USE-2 and a box of leads with the connectors cut off.
Call or text the buying desk954-740-1983
Voltage class1 kV and 2 kV
RatingSunlight resistant, XLPE
Sizes10 and 12 AWG, up to 4/0
Common lotShort coils and part reels
Get a buy quote
Send the reel list. A buyer reads it.
Six details are enough to start. Tags and photos can follow by text or email once a buyer has looked at the basics.
- A buyer reviews the lot: construction, footage and condition, not only metal weight
- Copper and aluminium, 600 V building wire through 345 kV cable
- Full reels, partial reels, cut lengths, pallets and truckloads
- No fee, no obligation, and no automatic pickup
Reel list · Solar PV
Reviewed by a buyerTell us what you have and where it sits. Nothing is moved until written lot terms are agreed.
Solar cable covers two jobs. On the DC side it is PV wire, rated 1 kV or 2 kV, sunlight resistant, with a jacket intended to survive decades on a roof. In dual-rated RHW-2/USE-2 form it does the same work underground. On the AC side it is ordinary feeder or tray cable from the inverter to the service.
Rooftop work in Stone Oak and Helotes, ground mounts in the Hill Country and collection runs on commercial arrays all leave something behind. The scale is small per job and steady across a year, which is why solar lots arrive in boxes as often as on reels.
01
What a rooftop job leaves in the box
A residential array is wired in short strings, so the cable is bought in coils and cut in short lengths. What remains is a handful of coils in two gauges, a few leads with connectors on them, and the offcut pile nobody wants to sort. It is small, it is clean, and it is worth collecting rather than binning.
- Part coils of 10 and 12 AWG PV wire
- Leads with moulded connectors fitted
- Offcuts from string terminations
- Part reels of dual-rated USE-2
- A damaged lead replaced under warranty
02
1 kV, 2 kV and why the rating is printed
The voltage rating is the first thing a buyer reads on PV cable, because a 2 kV reel can go where a 1 kV reel cannot. Both are common, both are bought, and they are not the same lot. The print also carries the sunlight-resistant marking, which is what allows the cable to sit exposed on a rack for years.
A PV reel with the print faded below the rating is a harder conversation. It is still copper cable, and it is priced accordingly rather than as a rated product.
03
Ground mounts and collection runs
Ground mounts use more cable and waste more of it, because trench routes change once the array layout is set. Commercial jobs add AC collection cable from the inverters to the service, which is ordinary feeder in aluminum or copper and is priced as feeder.
- Direct burial DC homeruns
- Trench cable left from a re-routed array
- AC collection feeder from inverters
- Conductor from a decommissioned array
- Bare copper from the equipment ground
04
Sun, connectors and footage on a coil
PV cable lives in the sun, so its failure mode is at the jacket rather than in the conductor. Chalking is normal and harmless; cracking at a bend or at a connector is not. A lead pulled hard out of a roof penetration often has a crushed jacket right where the connector was crimped.
Coils are measured by weight and by count, since a fifty-foot coil rarely carries a tag. We weigh the coil and set it against the published weight of that gauge per thousand feet, and the connector ends tell us what the piece was.
| Product | Range | Condition we take |
|---|---|---|
| PV wire, 1 kV | 10 and 12 AWG | Coil, part reel |
| PV wire, 2 kV | 8 to 4 AWG | Reel with tag |
| RHW-2 / USE-2 dual rated | 600 V, 8 AWG to 4/0 | Reel, long coil |
| Leads with moulded connectors | 10 and 12 AWG | Complete assemblies |
| AC collection feeder | 1/0 to 500 kcmil | Reel, pulled run |
Questions
Answers before you send anything.
If your question is not here, call the desk. A buyer answers, not a call centre.
Do you buy PV wire in short coils?
From about twenty-five feet, yes. Solar work produces short coils by design, and a box of them is a normal lot. Keep the gauges separate and the coils tidy, and the box can be weighed and priced in one pass.
Does the 2 kV rating make a reel worth more?
It makes it usable in more places, and that is reflected in the value. A 2 kV reel covers work a 1 kV reel cannot, so it is the better asset. The rating is printed on the jacket, so it is easy to prove.
Are the connectors worth keeping?
Yes, if they are moulded onto the cable rather than field-fitted. A moulded connector shows the lead was a listed assembly, which is worth more than a bare end. Cut leads with connectors attached should be kept apart from plain offcuts.
Is USE-2 from a solar job bought as solar cable?
It is the same family, and dual-rated RHW-2/USE-2 is common on DC homeruns. What decides the answer is the print on the jacket rather than the job it came off, so photograph the print and the voltage.
Keep reading
Related pages
No fee · no obligation
You have the cable. We have a scale and a check.
Send the reel list, the tags or a photograph of the pallet. A buyer comes back with what the lot is worth and how pickup would work, before anything is moved.
954-740-1983 Call or text
- Reel tags, or the print on the jacket
- Reel count and footage, even roughly
- Where it sits and what can reach it
- Whether the cable is still energised