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I don't have any knowledge about the efficiency etc. but one possibly relevant note is that sometimes there are government subsidies, so even if there was a sit
by corin_ 11y ago
I don't have any knowledge about the efficiency etc. but one possibly relevant note is that sometimes there are government subsidies, so even if there was a situation where it wasn't environmentally better it could still be a financial win for the end user. (I know this scheme was or may still be available in Oxford, I don't know if it was UK-wide or could have been the local council, but I know it wasn't a private company offering the incentives.)
- asgard1024 11y agoActually, I have to correct myself - it looks like most estimates give PV panels EROEI somewhere above 6, which would mean about 15% of produced energy is needed for the production and maintenance of the panel itself. But even then it would probably be net gain. Subsidies etc. are a different matter, because then you're talking about competing with other sources and the strawman argument "it costs more energy to produce than it saves" doesn't work.