Until now, noise measurements have only been considered for individual solar cells and statistical results have only been used for numerical simulation, representing solar panel configurations with p branches in parallel and s cells in series. This work studies the low frequency noise of a forward biased dark solar cell as a non~lestructive inspection test for solar panels. It is shown that by using this method one cell with a given defect can be detected in a solar panel under dark conditions. A real spatial solar panel consisting of five cells in parallel and five cells in series was tested. Cells for use in space are of the nรท-p monocrystalline silicon junction type with an area of 8 cm 2 and a base resistivity of 10 ~ cm. The I-V, Rd = f(I) characteristics of one cell or of a panel are shown to be unchanged when a small defect is introduced by mechanical stress. Next, theoretical results on the 1/f noise in a p-n junction under forward bias are recalled. It is shown that the noise associated with the defective cell is about 10-15 times higher than that of a good cell. If one good cell is replaced by a defective cell in the 5 ร 5 panel, this leads to an increase of about 30% in the noise level of the panel as a whole.