Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum30-year-old solar panels still going strong - ChemistryWorld

30-year-old solar panels still going strong
ChemistryWorld.com | Mason Wakley | 28 August 2025
An analysis of six solar panel systems installed in Switzerland over 30 years ago shows they remain effective, with material quality emerging as the main factor determining their longevity.
Solar panel manufacturers typically guarantee their products for 25 to 30 years. While accelerated ageing tests performed in the lab support these estimates, they offer limited insight into their operational lifetime under real-world conditions.
Various studies have investigated how factors such as temperature, climate and mounting angle influence the lifetime of in-use solar panels. However, few have examined panels in extreme climates or systematically compared panels from different manufacturers.
A team based across Switzerland, Austria and Germany has now analysed the long-term performance of six photovoltaic systems installed across Switzerland between 1987 and 1993. Panel locations ranged from low-altitude domestic properties to solar panel farms to commercial buildings in mountainous regions, each experiencing different climates and mounting angles...more
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/30-year-old-solar-panels-still-going-strong/4022052.article
Related: SOLAR PANEL IS 30 YEARS OLD AND STILL WORKS GREAT !!!
Oct 6, 2010
Solar panels include pv electric, hot water & swimming pool heat.

liberal N proud
(61,137 posts)We went with a plan where we dont own them. If the roof needs replaced the Solar company removes and replaces the panels. At 10 years, we will get newer panels.
NNadir
(36,577 posts)I'm sure that this cute video, like the videos of the hydrogen buses, trucks, lawn mowers, helicopters and beard trimmers, suggests there is "no problem."
Well there are academics who don't agree that the useless solar industry - that has done nothing at all, any more than the hydrogen scam as done - to slow the collapse of the planetary atmosphere.
I don't think the authors of this paper about a 30 year old solar cell that "still works" - how well isn't clear - will be inspired to retract this paper: Preeti Nain, Annick Anctil, End-of-life solar photovoltaic waste management: A comparison as per European Union and United States regulatory approaches, Resources, Conservation & Recycling Advances, Volume 21, 2024, 200212.
And let's be clear; they claim that solar junk is cleaner than gas and coal, without recognizing the reality, that without access to gas and coal, the solar industry could not operate, all the "green hydrogen" lies, prevarications, cheap ads and cute videos notwithstanding.
The point of all this misleading horse manure rests on a claim that a specific case represents the general case, whether there is some hydrogen bus somewhere that hasn't yet blown up, or a hydrogen helicopter, a hydrogen kitchen blender, whatever.
The general case is that the solar industry is dependent on fossil fuels and has been so dependent forever and always will be. There is not enough land on this planet to assume that all the trucks hauling millions of tons of solar waste around will be powered by the "green hydrogen" chimera.
One of the things that the fossil fuel industry does - besides demonizing the nuclear industry in their own interest - is to produce mindless abstractions and outliers as if they were real.
They're not real. The planet is burning. All the bullshit has done nothing to prevent that outcome.
Have a nice day tomorrow.