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Excerpt from www.techspot.com
Why it matters: Solar panels are meant to last for decades, with an estimated operational lifespan of 20 to 40 years. However, their efficiency and the ability to generate power will degrade over time. Surprisingly though, a new long-running test in France paints a positive picture of the longevity of solar panels in the wild.
In 1992, a small 1-kilowatt solar array called Phébus 1 was connected to the French grid by Hespul, a nonprofit renewable energy association based in Lyon, France. Over 30 years later, that same installation is still pumping out watts. After dismantling the vintage 10 square meter array last year, technicians ran the panels through rigorous lab testing per international standards and found astonishing results.
An average of 79.5 percent of the initial rated power output was still being achieved after 31 years of service. Solar panel manufacturers typically guarantee only 80 percent of original performance for up to 25 years. Phébus 1 blew right past that metric, with the decline coming in at just 0.66 percent per year on average over its 31-year lifetime.
