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I'm a big supporter of solar power, but in 60 years most installs will be garbage. Not only will the cells themselves be much lower efficiency, but the conversi
by kurthr 5y ago
I'm a big supporter of solar power, but in 60 years most installs will be garbage. Not only will the cells themselves be much lower efficiency, but the conversion electronics is also failure prone over the 20-30 year timespan. I'm waiting for the breathless reporting of the "Solar Garbage Disaster", and other non-News.
- endisneigh 5y agoEven if the efficiency of solar goes to 25% in 100 years, there's no reason why you couldn't still use them.
- loeg 5y agoAt some point, it’s not a cost efficient use of land. Other, more valuable users of the land will buy it and junk the panels.
- caoilte 5y agoa lot of land can be dual use (eg reservoirs / building roofs) or is of negligable value for anything else (desert)
- endisneigh 5y agoSolar panels can be on top of things tho
- pfdietz 5y agoIn many places in the US, even in the East, you can buy land for $1000/acre. An acre is 4046 square meters. A solar module is maybe $75 per square meter. If we cover half the acre with modules, the modules alone cost $150,000/acre. Now add in cost of mounting hardware and inverters. Land cost is close to negligible for solar, unless you're building it in very expensive places. If land cost ever did become generally significant, PV would be so cheap it would already have driven all other energy sources off the market.
- ncmncm 5y agoThere is an active, open market in used solar panels. Sold panels do not stay in the dark long. But putting solar on land need not interfere with other uses. Rather, solar increases the value of the land for the other uses; a roof lasts longer with solar on. On a parking lot solar provides shade and stops rain. On pasture or crop land, solar reduces heat and water stress, increasing yield and cutting irrigation demand. On a reservoir or canal, it reduces evaporation loss, and runs cooler, thus more efficiently.
- kurthr 5y agoYes, but as I mentioned the high power support electronics won't last that long. Unless you want to use them as shelter, they are unlikely to be functional. As far as efficiency I roughly agree. There's likely to be a 15-20% drop per 20 years so I think they'll still be 8-10% conversion efficient assuming they are clean and unbroken.