Hello,
Do Canadian Solar and ET Solar panels have bypass diodes - like the Solar World panels? 
Are panels without these diodes cheaper to begin with?
If panels are partially shaded during the day, aren't these diodes important?
Thanks,
Andrew

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Actually, a typical ET Solar or Canadian solar module has 3 by-pass diodes to prevent damage through overheating due to shaded or defective cells.  

The way a bypass diode works is when a panel is shaded or a cell in a panel is not working, the panel will not produce very much power but it will have a high resistance blocking the flow of power produced by another panel in series.  If one panel is shaded, in the series, the current produced by the unshaded panel can flow through a by-pass diode to avoid the high resistance of the shaded panel and damage that this flow of energy may cause.

You might want to read about the difference between a by-pass diode and a blocking diode.

To answer your question panels with out bypass diodes may be cheaper but be careful.

Almost every new PV module has bypass diodes to protect the module (or as little as one third of it) in the event of shading. Just check the module data sheet on the product listing page:  ET Solar 245
Here's a sample from the ET Solar 245 Data Sheet:Image removed.
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12 years 2 months ago
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