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This is not news but a useful reminder nonetheless.
Advances in efficiency may cause replacing them to be viable. Still.
I wish we could still install the old panels somewhere. They might not be good enough to be rooftop solar anymore, but in the field, why not take all they can still give?
Because solar panels are dirt cheap to produce and your time and construction materials and land has value. Recognizing trash is vital for an eco friendly economy.
Edit: some red necks do use old solar panels for off grid, low cost setups.
But that relies on the capitalist assumption that producing trash and CO2 is free because you can dump it withouth having to pay for it, and destroying nature to stripmine for the raw resources only costs the purchasing price because the environment isn’t monetized.
Plus the imperialist assertion that providing decentralized electricity to poor people in developing nations is net negative because it increases the cost of labor from those regions because they can do other productive things than work in your factory.
No. It relies on the assumption that newer panels produce more energy hence are more eco friendly.
Plus: I explicitly mentioned them being a great opportunity for the poor.
Also Pakistan is rapidly building out solar panels without that.
Depends on how you define eco friendly.
The old panels already exist so if you can use them without having to transport them across the world (like the parent comment suggests), continuing to use them is eco-friendlier than producing new ones, which requires additional CO2 from manufacturing
Not doing anything at all has the lowest emissions. But it is obviously not the best way to curb impact while preserving lives and quality of life.
Your adversity to investments that do pay off would be a great hinderance to society as a whole.
Solar panels can be recycled, take very little materials and manufacturing and are usually not the limiting factor when it comes to transitioning into a low damage economy.
Throwing away great amounts of cheap solar power because you would have to lift a finger to achieve it is not… Great.
Using something that still works as long as it doesn’t produce emissions…. Is actually the single best way to curb impact, yeah.
Like literally the best use is long-term. If it still works and you can eek some power out of it rather than toss it, there’s no harm doing so.
Assuming you can recycle it now, you can also recycle it down the line when it genuinely isn’t worth keeping anymore. Until then, if you’ve got space, might as well. Because recycling isn’t free, in energy, emissions, or labor.
preserving lives and quality of life.
ROFL what? Continuing to use old panels in addition to new ones harms lives and quality of life? Ridiculous.
Solar panels can be recycled,
Most can’t, especially the old ones are glued shut.
a grid-tie inverter could get the last bit of juice out of them
Yes. But they don’t produce power by themselves. They need light. Hence mounting, countryside etc. That’s effort.
You’ve got to have space you want to use for them. Just because I have 10 200w panels for free doesn’t mean it makes sense to mount them on my roof (which is the only space I have facing the sun), because 400+w are available now and it costs money to mount them.
But it might not make sense to take down my 20 year old 200w panels and replace them, or maybe I can sell them to someone with more space.
Sure! That’s why I talk it might be critical for rooftop, but maybe useful somewhere else.
I’m pretty certain it may make economic sense to install something like this in a large open area. If the panels were meant to be thrown away, the price must be tiny.
Anyhow, I expect this to be more common once the mass-produced solar of the last decade gets old. We may just not be there yet to have plenty of used solar to offer.
My goal one day is to have enough yard space to do an on ground set up. Insanely cheap if you pick up some used panels. The average person would only need an electrician to hook it up to the house.
I understand not being comfortable with diy roof mounting, I know I’m not. The costs scale quickly when it goes on the roof
Ground mount has to address wind load which can be significant. I think the standard is around 500kg wind lift per standard panel. I’ve got a number of 200w panels I haven’t set up because I don’t have an inverter but also because they’re a pain to anchor.
I’ve never lived in areas with high winds. I’ve seen some people with very simple plywood frames to hold their panels. They’ve held for years without issue. Totally regional though
People get away with a lot, but as you note it’s regional. All it takes is one gust of wind.
But I do have a steady average 8kt wind (I mean average over last 5 years day and night), but gusts and storms push 50kt. I wish wind power was more accessible like solar has become; I live in an area that’s frequently the windiest in the country. I’d be able to use it as primary generation and solar for top off.
Possibly of relevance to this instance… my dad’s place is already in a situation where this would make senses. He did solar early, and has 235w panels. It was not quite sufficient to cover his demand, but close. Current panels of the same footprint are 400w. Replacing them would give him coverage of his needs, plus enough to charge an EV, which weren’t really a thing when he installed the solar array. His array isn’t even on a rooftop. It’s on a canopy in the yard. He designed it thinking some time down the road he’d replace the panels and inverter if need/opportunity arose.
Unfortunately our electric utility changed their net metering and permitting rules, and he can’t replace the panels and inverter. They’ll only permit it as a new system, which would mean dramatically more expense than just panels and inverter. He’d get a markedly worse rate plan, and would need to install batteries as well.
Replacing them would be a financial no-brainer, and a quick job if not for the utility.
They continue to work, even if output is degraded. Newer planels installed in the same location overheated and their elements cracked, indicating inferior manufacturing quality, but the oldest batch is not showing this symptom.
If he’s going to have to install batteries, would it make sense to shove all that permitting money into more batteries and go completely off-grid instead?
At least around here, you can just tell the utility company to fuck off if you are off-grid
Yeah, off grid might work, but the expense of adding batteries is pretty big, and the system meets most of his demand currently. So it’s a bit of a hard sell. A lot of money for a small improvement. Their shitty rules have taken the simple easy upgrade off the table.
Three decades, three climates: environmental and material impacts on the long-term reliability of photovoltaic modules† https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2025/el/d4el00040d
the paper
“warranty” is a label that manufacturers put on the product for legal reasons. there’s no reason to assume that the product will break after that point. literally some products last 5x what’s written on the warranty.
It’s just the time the manufacturer is willing (or forced) to be held liable for certain defects to be caused by manufacturing errors instead of expected wear and material degradation.
Unless something is mission- or safety-critical, replacing it before it breaks is wasteful.
Decades?
25 years is “decades” too
Prolly about 80 years or so. While yield slowly dimish they will be more useful as scrap due to advancing tech as opposed to breaking. Also some panels may die but that’s rather rare.
accounting depreciation is different from real world performance
Same goes for EV batteries. It’s just fear mongering.
To a much lesser extent. Solar panels work a real long time real good. EVs range loss does impact practical use much more than lowering the power output of a solar array.
This is like my wet dream right now. Please let perovskites cover the world!
Most roofs last 25-30 years or so. I suspect the amount of time that solar panels need to be replaced is around the same time since replacing the panels after you replace the roof only a few years beforehand might be most costly.
What roof only lasts 30 years? I’ve seen even unglazed concrete tiles, the really cheap ones that were from the 60s and still fine.
Asphalt shingles in rainy locations. Unless you want to shell out for slate, concrete, or metal roofing, expect to replace the roof every 15-20 years.
Slate is the way to go if your structure can support the weight. You’ll get 100+ years out of it, but it’s up to 10x more expensive than asphalt shingles and many owners want the cheapest option due to finances or not intending to live in the home long term.
Oh, okay. Around here, those are only used for garden sheds, maybe.
a biosolar roof would be a nice
I’m married. Please stop trying to seduce me.
apparently insurance companies will replace the whole array if one panel gets hail damage. this means there’s plenty of perfectly good panels for free out there. perfect for powering or heating a tool shed or something
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25 years is still a very long time.
Last year, I built DIY solar on my garden shed. I got the modules for free, they had been installed on a supermarket roof for over 20 years. The manufacturer no longer exists, but the modules are still > 95% efficient. Of course new modules are smaller and produce twice as much electricity in the same space. But I didn’t care, I had the space and I really like the solar punk look of the old blue modules. Feels good to reuse them.
The real question is, will it be worth replacing them with whatever is out after 25 years of efficiency improvements.
That would be a much better deal though compared to being forced to replace them with more or less the same due to wear.
I have a few solar panels installed in 2008.
They are mounted in an extremely bad location: on a south facing wall, without proper airflow on the back side.
They continue to work, even if output is degraded. Newer planels installed in the same location overheated and their elements cracked, indicating inferior manufacturing quality, but the oldest batch is not showing this symptom.
Let me know when solar efficiency is significantly higher.
it is significantly higher
