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
My grandmother had an incandescent light bulb in her house that had been there since the early 1900s and still worked. But, compared to modern bulbs it was pretty dim, used very thick glass, and was pretty overbuilt. Modern incandescent bulbs are not built to last. They’re brighter, and they’re cheaper, but not as durable.
Looking at the picture, I wonder if modern panels will last the same way.
Solar panels in the 1980s were big, inefficient, chonky things. If they weren’t hand assembled, they sure looked hand-assembled.
Modern solar cells are much more efficient and clearly machine assembled. They use much finer wires, which might be more fragile:
It wouldn’t surprise me if part of the trade off to get cells that have double the efficiency at half the price you also have to give up on some durability.
My grandmother had an incandescent light bulb in her house that had been there since the early 1900s and still worked. But, compared to modern bulbs it was pretty dim, used very thick glass, and was pretty overbuilt. Modern incandescent bulbs are not built to last. They’re brighter, and they’re cheaper, but not as durable.
Looking at the picture, I wonder if modern panels will last the same way.
Solar panels in the 1980s were big, inefficient, chonky things. If they weren’t hand assembled, they sure looked hand-assembled.
Modern solar cells are much more efficient and clearly machine assembled. They use much finer wires, which might be more fragile:
It wouldn’t surprise me if part of the trade off to get cells that have double the efficiency at half the price you also have to give up on some durability.
Modern LED bulbs last far longer than incandescent ones