> Is the energy that a solar panel generate in its life enough for its normal use, plus extracting the minerals that it's made of, plus push the panel, through

> Is the energy that a solar panel generate in its life enough for its normal use, plus extracting the minerals that it's made of, plus push the panel, through the ocean all the way from China? or are we fooling ourselves using oil for all that? This is such a thoroughly debunked line it's barely worth discussing. Here's a sufficient proof. The dirtiest cheapest coal is about $1-2/GJ at the mine front. A good brown coal power plant is about 50% efficient. Current unsubsidized solar module cost (not whole project) for large scaleprojects is in the $0.2-0.3. At 25% capacity factor a dollar of solar at $0.3 will produce 500MJ over 20 years and still be 80% productive. Thus even if the only activity required to build a solar panel were burning brown coal as it comes out of the ground, it could not be profitable to burn more fossil fuels than the energy the panel released.