Re:Good and bad (Score 1)

>How long does a panel last? 10 years? 15?

Seriously? And no link or at least cogent argument? I mean, come on, this is pretty obviously wrong. It's no longer 1995, the tech is much better implemented & understood; does anyone really believe solar panels fail after a decade? I *like* nuclear power, and I *like* solar power; they both have their uses. I can argue for and against both, and providing supporting data for all sides.

Short case in point...

Panels are warrantied 30 years & last 30+ years. Panels are *supposed* to degrade by 20% over the course of that 30 year period, meaning that an array producing 20kWh/day at the beginning will produce 16kWh/day minimum 30 years after installation. My experience has been minor degradation but not as bad so far - 9 years in.

Note that 30 years is a typical warranty, not lifespan. They won't magically stop at 30 years. In fact, if I assume regular degradation of 20% every 30 years, that means they will last 150 years and in my case (3kW panels) will produce 362 MWhours of power. Think about that one for a moment, let it sink in - and while you're at it check my math (4832460 watt hours first year, assume degradation of .667% per year).

The DC -> AC inverter - because panels generate DC and if grid-tied you need to convert to AC - are warrantied 25 years. Again, that's just when the warranty runs out. Inverters typically run at 95%+ efficiency when in normal production capacity. Early morning & late evening when the sun is weak, it drops - but who cares? Trivial percentage of the power produced. The inverter actually can be an issue since it's a comparitively complicated piece, but as with panels it's getting cheaper and it's not *that* tough to do DC to AC inversion.

I can point off to DOE websites that talk about energy needed to produce the component parts - that gets paid off in about 2-3 years. I can talk about money invested versus returned - comes out to about 11-13 years for me. It's going to be a lot less for someone buying now as prices have come down, just like it's less for me than folks 10 years before I did my install as prices came down. We can also talk about issues around the rare(r) earth elements and where they come from, impact of their mining etc.

These are almost besides my real point - if you make an assertion, please back it up. If not, you might get support from those who agree with you, but you are more lilely to give support to those on the other side by appearing uninformed. I like finding arguments that supports my point; I like more arguments that run counter to what I know. I want my ideas tested and that can't happen without supporting evidence & informed debate.

>Compare that to Nuclear plants in the US... all of those shut downs (with one exception) have been for political reasons dressed up as "economic" reasons.

Although I believe this is not completely accurate, it's still sadly mostly true. Nuclear can be an excellent piece of the puzzle and if we can get away from the silver bullet mentality, we'll see it as quite possibly *the* major piece of high end concentrated power production.