Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana
Sounded kind of interesting so I did a little research on the web. The panel manufactures have a very optimistic view of the operational life of the panels up to 50 years - (gee wonder why?). Other sites with scientific backgrounds and no financial interest are not quite so bold. Per all sites I have looked at the panels lose 1/2% of their efficiency per year. So in 20 years you have lost 10% of the amount of power a new panel can produce. The other issue is that the electronics that convert and sync the power to the grid is very expensive and complicated - most sites estimate a reasonable life of 25 years (obviously with less and less power produced as the panels age). This does not include the possibility of damage to the panels due to tree limbs, hail or storm derbies. I looked into this several years ago thinking it might be an alternative to a generator as back up power - at that time I was looking at storing the power in a battery pack and using it as a backup type system. The costs astounded me so I didn't do much research - I take a very dim view of any project that only can be made (questionable) economically feasible only by getting tax rebates and forced purchase of the power by the power company at twice the normal cost.