glarfLeased Solar Systems Are Failing Across America
Was anyone else thrown by “leased solar systems”?
Why buy new, when you can just trade it in for a new model in a few millennia? You know a solar system loses 20% of its initial value just by driving it off the lot?
Technically, they lose about 20% of their generation capacity within a few hours of first exposing them to sunlight. It's one of those weird quirks that researchers have been trying to solve for decades.
Also, they tend to lose the rest of their generation capacity over decades, not millennia. The industry standard is for a panel to be able to produce 80% of installed capacity after 25 years.
👍Maximum Derek👍A team at NREL found evidence for the cause of this a couple years ago. It’s something to do with interaction between the boron and the oxygen content within the silicon cells. If it holds up, hopefully we’re on the road lessening the degradation over time.
Better silicon solar panels
Researchers are applying a new technique to identify defects in silicon solar cells that cause a drop in efficiency. The lessons learned at the atomic level could lead to improvements in the way manufacturers strengthen their products against what is known as light-induced degradation.