Once again you demonstrate your tendency to dumb fuckery. The standard guarantee on the panels is 80% at 20 to 25 years. And many panels that are that old are generating well above that guarantee.
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How long do solar panels last? Solar panel lifespan explained
Reading Time: 5 minutes
The industry standard for a solar panel’s productive lifetime is 25-30 years. However, a solar panel won’t die after 25-30 years, rather, their output will decrease a significant amount below what the manufacturer projected. It’s hard to understand the upfront cost of going solar without knowing how long you can expect your rooftop panels to produce ample energy. Your solar panels will be able to offset your electricity use for decades, but it is also important to understand industry projections and degradation rates.
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Key takeaways about the lifetime of solar panels
- Solar panels usually last for 25 to 30 years
- Over their lifetime, panels very slowly degrade, meaning they may produce less and less electricity
- High-quality equipment makes a difference – visit the EnergySage Buyer’s Guide to compare panels side-by-side
How long do solar panels last?
As a general rule,
solar panels last for about 25-30 years. However, this doesn’t mean that they stop producing electricity after 25 years – it just means that energy production has declined by what manufacturers consider to be a significant amount.
Solar panels will continue to work for many decades, given they aren’t physically damaged by wind, debris, or any other external factors. This is primarily because solar panels don’t have any moving parts – they rarely break from within and are usually only damaged by outside forces like a poor racking setup or inclement weather.
The key factor in making solar panels last: panel degradation rate
A
2012 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that, on average, solar panel output falls by
0.8 percent each year. This rate of decline is called
solar panel degradation rate. Though this rate of decline metric will vary depending on which panel brand you buy, premium manufacturers like SunPower offer degradation rates as low as
0.3%. Solar panel degradation rates are constantly improving as solar panel technology gets better over the years, and degradation rates below 1% are common throughout the industry. In the years since this 2012 study was conducted, more efficient technologies have been developed and many newer panels have just a 0.5 percent yearly decline in energy output (or better!).
What does panel degradation rate mean exactly? For the above example, a 0.8% degradation rate means that in year two, your panels will operate at 99.2 percent of their original output; by the end of their 25-year “useful lifespan,” they will still be operating at 82.5%.A slightly more durable panel with a degradation rate of 0.5% will likely produce around 87.5% as much electricity as it did when it was first installed. To determine the projected output of your solar panels after a certain number of years, you can simply multiply the degradation rate by the number of years you are interested in and subtract that number from 100%
The lifetime of solar panels impacts your savings. We answer the question "how long do solar panels last" and what it means for you.
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