1.3.6.1.4.1.615132d ago

Solar panel waste is not something you need to concern yourself with. Even if people are upgrading panels after 10 years this waste is insignificant compared to sooooooooo many things. Recycling materials in solar panels is probably a good idea, but it's not something to stop you getting panels today.

If waste is a concern for you, you should be switching to solar panels since they produce so little waste compared to other energies like coal. Like hundreds of times less. You probably should be caring more about, tires, mattresses, single use plastics, vapes, the packaging everything comes before solar panels.

(This brought to you by ABC fearmongering)

Show threadAlex von Kitchen2d ago
@xssfox wouldn't panels removed after 10 years go to a second hand market?
Show threadErica Briony.2d ago
@Dangerous_beans @xssfox I think there's laws against using second hand ones, which is part of the problem.. pretty sure you can't even upgrade by adding more later without replacing them all.. could be wrong on that but i know there's some wasteful laws about systems
Show thread1.3.6.1.4.1.615132d ago

@steadilyebbing @Dangerous_beans not sure about laws but from personal experience, it's actually kind of annoying to repurpose them. When getting them off the roof its easy to crack them. But yes, part of the plan I believe is to have somewhere that can take these panels in, test / validate them, then repurpose them.

The panels are so cheap now however that it doesn't really make money since to mess around with repurposing old panels when much of the cost is in cabling, install, inverter ect...

Show threadCyberFrog2d ago
@xssfox @steadilyebbing @Dangerous_beans modern high performance solar panels also lose some efficiency over time, if your panel started at 25% conversion efficiency it is likely around 10% after 10 years of usage or something like that, probably not worth it, just get new ones (the tech is cheaper and better for new ones anyway)
Show threadChristian Stadelmann2d ago

@froge @Dangerous_beans @xssfox @steadilyebbing Are you sure about this? We had an initiative in Erlangen, Germany, who took 20+ years old panels, professionally cleaned them and measured their performance. Most of the panels still had 90%+ of their original power/efficiency. And I've heard from people who worked on this in university that the average modules sold in Germany (at least between 2000 and 2010) commonly show this behavior.

Or does this primarily affect newer low quality panels?

Show threadCyberFrog
@genodeftest @Dangerous_beans @xssfox @steadilyebbing this is probably correct, I think I messed up the numbers from memory here, the actual degradation rate is around 1% of the total conversion efficiency per year (depending on solar panel design).

I had originally thought it was a flat 1% loss of conversion efficiency per year, which is actually a much worse degradation rate.

so yeah most common panel designs should actually be around 90% of their original efficiency after about 10-15 years (depending on design) I think
Apr 2 at 11:39amWeb