I heard that a solar panel fell off the roof once and crushed a litter of puppies on the yard.

 

Wow! Cool! I would have liked to have seen that!

 

Same here in US and Canadia.

 

Welcome. Hit us up in the Carolinas section

 

I recall hearing that solar energy technology is also somewhat limited in that the idk "cells"? in the panels don't maintain 100% efficiency over time. Which means that say after 10 years your expensive solar panels may not be generating enough power anymore to make you that longterm payout you were hoping for.

Personally if that is the case I feel that all these solar panel companies are a big SCAM, they make you look longterm for profit but after 10 years when they have sold thousands of panels they simply close up shop, take their profit, and kiss your ass goodbye before you start to notice that your lights arent staying on as long as they used to.

I really like the idea of leasing solar panels, it makes much more sense and makes this source of energy MUCH more affordable.

If you are curious about what other forms of efficient(yet initially costly) energy is out there, check out tidal, wave, and geothermal. These forms of energy are also not restricted by when the sun is out or only on windy days.

 

The biggest problem with PV is the fact that you only have power from the sun, obviously when the sun is down you're still using power from the grid (or backup batteries) to power everything you need. The problems with this is that no matter if you have an excess of power generation during the day, during the night you're still using other types of power. Backup batteries are only good for XX amount of years (depending on technology) and they're not particularly great for the environment when you need to replace them. Good luck on replacement costs as well.

Wind power also has the same problems...on/off power with the wind. The best "clean" power is going to end up being geothermal and hydro. Hydro has already shown that it does impact the wildlife..

What I mean to say is, fossil fuels is...a great fuel source. Bad for the environment, bad for our wallets but GREAT as a source of energy. Its really really hard to find anything thats on par with it. Ive always asked every professor/researcher/engineer who work in these fields what they think. UNLESS they're the salespeople almost everyone has admitted that there are many hurdles to overcome.

Another point from a friend working at the electric company brought up was that only the wealthier people can afford the PV panels. This leads to less energy consumption from the power plants (while requiring more off-peak power and causing problems to the grid due to its inherently unstable power generation). The less energy they sell, the more they have to charge for the power. The more upgrades/stopgap fixes they have to apply to the aging grid means they need more income. Basically, PV panels make the PV manufactures wealthy, the wealthy break even and then some (if the PV panels work as advertised), the power company break even (they have to or else you're out of utility company), and the poor shoulder all the $$$ it costs to maintain the grid, upkeep the grid, fix the problems due to the PV panels, etc.