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People forget that solar panels have a lifespan and become less productive as they age, and so far, by the time you get your payback, its likely time to replace the panels again. Which sort of makes the whole process sort of pointless, from a $ point of view.

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Which sort of makes the whole process sort of pointless, from a $ point of view

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Ok, from the little that I understand about solar panel technology,

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All western governments should be doing everything in their power to rid of from the reliance on oil that shackles us to the hell hole that is the middle east.

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ORIGINAL: Icarys

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People forget that solar panels have a lifespan and become less productive as they age, and so far, by the time you get your payback, its likely time to replace the panels again. Which sort of makes the whole process sort of pointless, from a $ point of view.

There's always better avenues as I stated before..Add them together. this could be easily done with new home construction , home loans in general and remodels even.

Always a way around or through an obstacle like this.

The lifespan for the new solar tech is longer than 8 years and the newer tech is lowering in price on a regular basis.

It does degrade over time but not to the point you're laying out. It's headed toward solar..make no mistake about that. If it wasn't a viable resource today then you wouldn't have one of the largest solar plants in the U.S. going in California's desert.

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An interesting quest-- but IMO people pretty much are phony

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Of course solar will be used more but from the standpoint of installing panels on a persons house, they want more than vague promises to fork out $30,000 of their hard earned money to do that.

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ORIGINAL: SternSkipper

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Which sort of makes the whole process sort of pointless, from a $ point of view

Which solar cell formulation are you referring to. Because there are a fair number of absortion materials out there now, and some have better lifespan/performance profiles than others.
   And the price point is coming down dramatically as the years go by, whereas the consumer energy price index is headed in the opposite direction.
  Technology marches on friend. And a rapidly growing number of us want to see our money invested in future energy technologies rather than supporting PetroWelfare

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ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

From the article:  "But solar panel prices are on the decline, and if houses and buildings are more effectively insulated, initial investments would be paid back in eight years or so, instead of 15 to 20 years currently, Mitsubishi Research's Komiyama said."

Translation:  Solar takes 15-20 years to pay back its initial cost.  Effective insulation alone, which should cost next to nothing compared to solar, will save just as much money.

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ORIGINAL: SternSkipper

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Of course solar will be used more but from the standpoint of installing panels on a persons house, they want more than vague promises to fork out $30,000 of their hard earned money to do that.

You won't get more than vague promises till you make a heavy investment in the technology. Ask any petroleum vendor That just HAS to happen. It has to happen with an array of technologies... and they're being stifled right now by 'fiscal concerns' ... If we were smart we'd get a manhattan project for alternative affordable energy instead of giving big oil another penny. Small companies can do A LOT MORE with 4-6 billion dollars than any oil empire can the lean and mean of the start-ups involved creates by necessity amazing creativity for short bucks

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Of course, as I said earlier, people will learn more about solar and electric vehicles, and other ways of doing things when there is a reason for them to, like when gas is $10/gal or whatever. People arent there yet. And really, the govt isnt doing much to encourage them to.

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ORIGINAL: SternSkipper

Somebody should fund the living shit out of guys like Stanford Ovshinsky who's GOAL is to produce the cheapest alternative energy he can develop


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_R._Ovshinsky

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ORIGINAL: Icarys

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Of course, as I said earlier, people will learn more about solar and electric vehicles, and other ways of doing things when there is a reason for them to, like when gas is $10/gal or whatever. People arent there yet. And really, the govt isnt doing much to encourage them to.

You're right of course for the majority but the fire is catching. People don't need the government but it would make things easier because in a sense..it would be people helping each other..I used to think that if enough people wanted a certain thing that the government would listen, they'd have to. Not so much. We'll have to do it ourselves if we want any real change to happen.

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I do like solar but for me to do that, it would need to make financial sense for me. Maybe I will this year if the numbers actually do work for me and everything else lines up, I cant say just yet tho. The do-gooder part would be icing on the cake and certainly not the main motivation. I am being honest about it, since I cant do it if I cant afford to, most people cant either.

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ORIGINAL: SternSkipper

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An interesting quest-- but IMO people pretty much are phony

I dunno... all my lights are those low e or flourescent we only have the fridge now as a major appliance, we separate our garbage, we use less hot ware than we used to, I use public transportation, I use a rod and reel to kill my big game fish, and when I want to torture someone I use DC methods, rather than just yanking the cord out of a lamp like I used to.

I think I am doing better

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Of course, as I said earlier, people will learn more about solar and electric vehicles, and other ways of doing things when there is a reason for them to, like when gas is $10/gal or whatever. People arent there yet. And really, the govt isnt doing much to encourage them to.

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It'll happen when I make the move to Alaska though or I'll be using candles lol.