How long do residential solar panels last? - PV Magazine

[Caribbeans]

Multiple factors affect the productive lifespan of a residential solar panel. In the first part of this series, we look at the solar panels themselves.

PV-magazine-usa.com | September 8, 2023 Ryan Kennedy

Residential solar panels are often sold with long-term loans or leases, with homeowners entering contracts of 20 years or more. But how long do panels last, and how resilient are they?

Panel life depends on several factors, including climate, module type, and the racking system used, among others. While there isn’t a specific “end date” for a panel per se, loss of production over time often forces equipment retirements.

When deciding whether to keep your panel running 20-30 years in the future, or to look for an upgrade at that time, monitoring output levels is the best way to make an informed decision.

Degradation

The loss of output over time, called degradation, typically lands at about 0.5% each year, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)...more
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/09/08/how-long-do-residential-solar-panels-last/



Probably won't make any difference to some, they will continue to say "solar panels are junk after 20 years!" LOL Over and Over and Over again. They must think that a lie repeated enough times = truth.

[Historic NY]

1. I have a dead micro-inverter

Canadian Solar by NRG who sold out to morons in Texas (Spruce) worse pack of idiots, they say they don't have to do anything because the system is at 80%. I said to the moron that math in TExas must be hard for people take away one panel and its less than 80%

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. Inverters are the Achille's Heel of solar

At least with “microinverters” you didn’t lose the use of the entire system.

[Think. Again.]

2. Thanks for posting this...

I hadn't realized how important it is to be selective of brands with solar panels.

But it doesn't seem any different than any other major appliance purchases.

A good thing to remember is that a person would most likely not have to replace the entire system set up, just the panel components, so we shouldn't assume an entire re-installation cost. Just like when you have to replace your refrigerator, you don't have re-wire all the electric from the pole to do it.

[randr]

3. I have an 8 panel array-Novan Solar I think

I have lived here for 17 yrs with them operational. House was build in the late 80' I think. The panels sat unused for a number of years. They heat 250 gal. of water to 150 f every day the sun shines. I have only had to recharge the exchange fluid twice. They provide most of my domestic water and a significant amount of heat for the infloor heating system.

[Fiendish Thingy]

6. Sounds like you have passive solar for heating water

Very different from PV panels for electricity.

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. Yes, but they're quite efficient and have literally been around for 100's of years

[randr]

16. Yes, an assumption I make as all "solar panels" were hydronic at one time,

I am currently constructing a large car port that will have new EV power array on top.

[Shermann]

4. One of my concerns would be hail

I had a "20-year roof" obliterated by a hailstorm in 2011 and am still traumatized by it. If I shelled out $20K for solar panels, I'd be wringing my hands after every severe thunderstorm warning.

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. And the panels made today are far superior to those made 25, even 10 years ago. Nt

[WheelWalker]

7. I wonder how dust or pollen buildup affects performance?

[WheelWalker]

8. Apparently, quite significantly. Output reduced as much as 30% in one month.

https://news.mit.edu/2022/solar-panels-dust-magnets-0311#:~:text=But%20the%20accumulation%20of%20dust,is%20essential%20for%20such%20installations.

[Shermann]

10. The YouTubers with solar panels have to deal with that

Ideally, you'd have to be willing to get up on the roof yourself every year or two.

If you pay a company to come out and do that, they are going to siphon off much of your energy savings. I'm guessing there won't be any deals to be found on this upper middle class luxury service.

[WheelWalker]

11. If you live next to a gravel road/driveway, much more frequently than that.

[Chainfire]

9. My only experience with solar/electric is a panel that I installed 25 years ago to power the

gate into my property. I have been through dozens of batteries, at least 5 fence openers, but the original solar panel still charges the batteries like a champ.

[OKIsItJustMe]

14. Personally, I am an advocate of "community solar."

“My” solar panels are in solar farms within 50 miles of me, maintained by professionals. I don’t worry about hailstorms, or panel degradation, or failing inverters, or leaks in my roof. i had no “upfront costs.” My electricity comes from my utility just as it always has, I simply pay less for it now, and feel good about using renewable electricity!

Department of Energy: Community Solar Basics
NREL: Community Solar



From a societal viewpoint, “Community Solar” makes sense. Many people do not live under a roof they own. They cannot install “rooftop solar.” It is more efficient for teams of professionals to install and maintain large solar farms than an equivalent number of panels on numerous rooftops. We need to deploy large amounts of solar as quickly as possible. To do that piecemeal on individual rooftops would require a larger workforce.

NREL: Solar Installed System Cost Analysis

[Finishline42]

18. I agree

Solar PV is a long term payoff - how many people are going to stay in the same house long enough to get back original investment? Community solar would follow you from house to house.

A large part of the cost of solar is going to be installation costs - community solar would reduce that significantly.

The panels in a solar farm would be orientated optimally where as your roof probably isn't (both angles are important).

Plus you could incrementally buy into community solar - maybe as your need for electricity increases?

[OKIsItJustMe]

19. In my case, there was no "buy in"

Nexamp: Community Solar: What It Is and How It Works

Sign up, show them your utility bill, they designate an appropriate number of panels to generate electricity for a year’s worth of usage (if they have them available, if not, you need to wait for them to bring more on-line.) Through the year, those panels earn solar credits. At the end of a billing period, my utility contacts Nexamp to tell them what my usage was. Assuming I have credits in the bank, Nexamp charges me for the credits to cover my usage (at 10% less than my utility would have charged.)

So, if I had started in the Winter, I wouldn’t have sufficient credits to cover my usage. Payment is strictly on a usage basis.

The only question is, do they have enough panels available in their farms for new people to sign up. It seems like such a great deal that people are skeptical when I tell them about it.

Sheep help maintain “my” panels.

[Thunderbeast]

15. Here is a very good explanation of PV panel economics

It addresses the impact of degradation (small) and "all-in" payback costs in San Diego...an area with very high utility costs.

I installed solar panels 15 months ago in Portland...a city not known for sunshine. My system produces 104% of my household usage including two plug in hybrid vehicles (capacity of 50 miles per day EACH). With net metering, I pay $16 per month for services provided by the grid.

Even with the relatively cheap electric rates in my region, I am forecasting a payback on my investment in under nine years.

?si=WK2TGEigqJNm_5dr

[NNadir]

17. I'm sure PV magazine is an unbiased source. Of course, they have been arguing that solar will...

...save the world for many decades.

It didn't.

The main use for the solar industry is to allow fossil fuel salespeople and sales bots to put up a front in their rather dubious advertising campaign to claim that solar energy is the real source of hydrogen, when overwhelmingly, the source is from fossil fuels.

The following text has references not to industry advertising, but to the primary scientific literature:

A Giant Climate Lie: When they're selling hydrogen, what they're really selling is fossil fuels.

The chief thing generated by the solar industry, and now being sold by fossil fuel sales people rebranding fossil fuels as "hydrogen" who want to appear to object to fossil fuels, but actually come here and elsewhere to promote fossil fuels, is complacency.

If 50 years of cheering, wildly, at an expenditure of trillions of dollars, for the solar industry were something more than cheap advertising, climate change wouldn't be here, would it?

It's very hard to argue that solar energy has saved the world if the world is on fire because the solar advertising has proved useless.