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Solar Panel life up to 30 years...

Comments

  • #2
    saibhne
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 182 ✭✭saibhne


    Looks like it's PV - talks about grid connection and exposing "cells" to ageing techniques:

    "At a conference, the institute forecast that solar panels would be cost-competitive with energy from the grid for half the homes in Europe by 2020 - without a subsidy."

    Changes cost per watt calculations a bit alright..


  • #3
    quentingargan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,627 ✭✭✭quentingargan


    homer911 wrote: »
    Not clear whether this is PV or DHW collectors....

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8386460.stm

    Yep. That's PV alright. Flatplate solar water heaters should last about 40 years too, longer if they are protected with a heat dump, maybe shorter for some of the cheaper panels if they aren't. Vacuum systems can be expected to lose their vacuum after about 20 years.

    Solar PVs on the other hand suffer a slow degradation in output. Usually TUV tested panels are guaranteed to have 90% of their stated output after 10 years, and 80% of their stated output after 25 years. However, improvements in the technology and accelerated ageing tests seem to indicate that actual degradation will be somewhat slower than this.

    In Ireland, the life of PVs may be even better as the operating temperatures are lower than in Spain etc.


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