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Not that again. No it does not take decades to pay back the energy cost of the production of Wind Turbines or Solar Panels. Win turbines have an average payback
by blkhawk 11y ago
Not that again. No it does not take decades to pay back the energy cost of the production of Wind Turbines or Solar Panels. Win turbines have an average payback time of 2-8 Months.
Solar panels are far worse but even there the payback time for the complete System (Panel, Inverter, Installation, Transport) is between 2.5 Years to 1 Year depending on the panel technology [1]. These numbers are from a Frauenhofer Study from 2009 so one can assume that today's payback times are better than that due to slightly increased efficiency.
[1] http://c1cleantechnicacom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2013/12/energy-payback-solar-germany.png http://c1cleantechnicacom.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/files/2013...
- truthsayer1980 11y ago100% agree, and all these "pay back" arguments forget the payback time of coal or nuclear systems.
- ars 11y agoI highly doubt it's that short, that would mean that after 1 year you would make back all your money and everything after is profit? I've never seen any numbers even close to that, they all give decades to make make back your money, even when selling the electricity at retail, and certainly not when selling at wholesale.