The median solar panel degradation rate is about 0.5%, which simply means that a solar panel's energy production will decrease at a rate of 0.5% per year. After 20 years, your panels should still be working at about 90% of its original output.
Can you link us to sources that say something different??
No but if Lived off grid in a tiny home I would probably use some, not a huge amount. Hails too much in Oklahoma to feel safe about going with a big system
@Nimbus geothermal systems would be much better here along with passive solar and maybe solar or wind generators for extra energy. There are technologies that need to be made available. I read a decade ago that someone in Australia had come up with rooftop wind energy devices. Haven’t seen them here. A person who has money and is building a home can have a geothermal system set up. That’s what I would do if I did have the money for the setup. Takes a bit of land so not good in average size housing lots
@MayorOfCrushtown My older neighbors got scammed. They made a 70- year loan with payments about $50 more a month than what they were estimated to save. This was a few months ago and that couple is in their early 70’s
Here are avg dollar per year savings for a "typical" solar installation in 2019; since 2019, solar has gotten cheaper and grid power more expensive. Note also that a typical system is said to add about $15,000 to the value of a home for resale.
This means that in 2019, with rebates and tax incentives, the payoff period was 7.3 years in California. And with a 25 year performance warranty and 15-25 year product warranty, you can expect pure profit for a decade or more after.
And yes, at present 80% of the weight of solar panels is recyclable today. https://www.greentechrenewables.com/article/can-solar-panels-be-recycled
Yep, we have some solar panels on the roof and a battery in the basement. Here's our July power report:
The yellow is solar directly to the house; the green is from the 13kWh battery charged by solar; the gray is grid power. Yeah, we use a lot of wattage, but a fair amount goes into recharging a plug-in hybrid car.
Grid was 22% of our power, so solar provided 78% of our power and transportation!!
I live in an apartment building, but my parents had two of them on their roof. There was not enough sun, so they had to be propped up on a metal "scaffolding", and angled toward the only constant sun. The only thing 2 panels can operate is the hot water heater. And once the day's hot water is used up, my parents used to run out.
@therighttothink50 There is an aggressive sales solar company here called Sine Solar. They spelled it wrong…. Should be spelled Shein because it is Chinese solar panels. They have people taking up to 70 year loans to pay off those panels, doesn’t even save them money overall. And when they die that company will take their home. I believe they are doing this to scam people out their property and their children’s inheritance to get more Chinese owned property here in the USA. It is the Chinese that have harassed us with called and junk mail and text messages wanting to buy our homes
@Nimbus really don't solve anything. The emissions and toxins produced making,the lack of ability to store made energy and again toxins and emissions made to make storage cells far out weighs benifits of solar power
@BritishFailedAesthetic I agree that we need to have more THOUHTFUL renewable energy...unlike the dumbass renewable energy projects in the United States.
For example, they built a huge solar farm in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, (an area prone to hail storms), and surprise! Guess what happened to all those solar panels? All smashed up.
They built huge wind turbines off the east coast of the United States, and surprise! Guess what? The wind turbines are interfering with BOTH Naval sonar AND the sonar used by right whales.
We now have areas where our National defenses are full of holes, because the Navy has been blinded. THAT is a threat to National Secuirty.
AND dozens of right whales have been beaching themselves for the same reason. AND the feds blamed FISHERMEN in the northern Atlantic waters for the right whale deaths, and banned them from fishing for quite a long while, removing their only source of income.
We have wind turbines built in Texas by companies whose directors are located in EUROPE, and two years ago those wind turbines froze up during a harsh winter, causing blackouts during a time when people most NEEDED their electricity for emergency heating. And the board of directors was on another continent!
As I said...no more DUMBASS renewable energy projects.
I have ten panels. They cost me close to 12K when i bought them 15 years ago. I make about 800 a year from them and get reduction on my electric bills. That means it took about 15 years to pay for themselves and see a profit from them.
Because of the current stupidity of fuel pricing and the exhorbitant costs involved they are an additional asset to your home.
Worth looking into local and national grants available to see if you qualify. Could save you a decent slice on initial outlay
https://energycentral.com/c/ee/annual-energy-savings-potential-high-demand-solar-rises
