Solar panels are usually sold with 25 to 30 years of performance promises. But what happens after that, when the warranty language is long gone and you are
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panels are the least problematic part. what breaks first on the roof are either the mc3/mc4 connectors due to moisture creeping in and corroding the cables or uv lighting destroying the cables. another issue are inverters, most of them are prone to failure after about 10 years and after some time the installation on the roof isn’t compatible with newer hardware due to different voltage and wattage ranges.
but all in all these are minor issues compared to replacing a bunch of panels - which proved to be unnecessary. the few times i replaced an old panel was due to improper installation, improper handling (people stepping on them) and creeping failures from production faults.
If you look at the study, this is based on an n of 6 and there was significant variation across altitude, so reporting this as an average or a definitive result seems a little weird.
Moreover, the degradation rate was highest in the low-altitude installations, which experienced up to 1.5% efficiency loss per year. Whether your system operating at 80% efficiency after 20 years is material to you depends on the original installation size and power consumption (obviously), but I imagine it would be a replacement signal for most.
On top of all that, given changes in solar panel tech over the years, it’s not like current installations really resemble the ones in the study. Apparently thin-film solar panels have a shorter service life, but modern monocrystalline panels can be rated up to 40 years with estimated 0.3-0.5% efficiency loss per year.
It’s a fun study but I’m not sure why science reporting keeps insisting on trying to generalize or why this information would be considered groundbreaking given that it seems in line with manufacturers’ current understanding of how their products perform.
If you replace panels, the old panels don’t go away. Reuse at lower efficiency seems more viable than recycling.
Yeah, but if you’re a residential solar customer with limited roof space and/or a weight limit, the old panels become a bit of a liability.
Realistically a lot of it is going to end up in Africa on way or another.
I’ve also seen listings for used solar panels one Chinese wholesale marketplaces for 1/3 - 1/2 of the new price.
80% efficacy for 50% of the price sounds like it’s a great deal if the tradeoffs don’t matter.
Could just use them for fence or sunshade on your property somewhere where they’re not getting optimal sun. I mean if the other option is to throw them away might aswell.
a degraded panel in a suboptimal position is probably not worth the effort to install and the resources that would go into supporting it.
a better re-use case would be one where the downsides aren’t exacerbated but a new build panel isn’t justified. also solar panels are supposedly highly recyclable.
I’ve seen people do fences with entirely new ones both because fences are somehow absurdly expensive and solar panels themselves are quite cheap. Especially if it starts near the house anyways the cost of running a line doesn’t seem gargantuan. At the point where you’re replacing them in optimal conditions I’d look at it less as a solar panel and more as free building material that incidentally generates some power
I think it would be expansion signal for most, non? adding 20% more capacity is still cheaper than rehauling the whole thingy, nor is it likely their efficiency will increase that much to save space or whatever reason
Depends on how much roof space you have left and how easy it would be to add panels to the array, I’d imagine.
Do most people go for the full grid independence tho? I think supplemental panels make just as much sense, and utilities forbid disconnecting anyway, so it’s more like if it works it works type dealio
According to Google you need about 300-500 sq ft of panels to power a single family home so it might be simple to start with a 100 sq ft array and gradually build it out to compensate for losses over time and spread the cost. But I’m not a rooftop solar installer
tbh the shittiest part of residential solar is how unsynced it is to work, aside from like boiler, your car is gone during work, ac should be off, fridge eats like 500w at worst, you can maybe use like 5kw (and that’s what, for 30-60 minutes per day?) with boiler at best on your own, you can’t charge car cause it’s at work, and batteries explode costs. so you either go quarter-hog or full hog
Heating in colder climates is probably the big one (at least it is for us). Gas heat should be getting phased out and even relatively efficient heat pumps still need a decent amount of power.
with some shenanigans and thermally massive sinks (say boilers) heating can be intermittently fed, i don’t think a lot of people (some industries might) are bothering with that for now though. (so not heat pumps but say overtly massive boiler with radiator and a fan attached to central hvac system to provide heat as needed, and heat pump as a backstop). plus winter solar efficiency by default is what 40-60%?
The other piece of this is that a lot of he cost solar panel installation is the circuitry, transformers, wiring, and racking. Once that is in place, I think the cost is relatively minimal to replace an actual panel, a couple hundreds bucks a piece for a brand new state of the art one.
