Yes nothing lasts forever but my point was, that if the panels start off at a very low efficiency rating then the useful life is lowered. If they can get the efficiency rating higher, we will get a longer useful life. A 25-30 year life means very little if the panels only get 1/4 of the power in 5-10 years that they had gotten when new. I would like to see what their output is during their life span.

 

Point taken. That information is hard to find, but an hour of "quality time" with Google yielded this one snippet of info from a real world product:There you have it. I know it doesn't necessarily cover all technologies, but it's a real datapoint: the manufacturer is backing it up with a warranty. Here's the link.

 

I just have one question.
What happens to those solar panel if they are broken ?
Can they be recycled ? Or be left as "trash" all over again ???

 

I think it depends a lot on the technology used to make the panels; i.e. what materials are in them. It might also depend on whether any environmentally friendly tech-recycling companies will be in your area 25-30 years from now (when it's time to replace the system, since it will have dropped to only 80% of its peak power generation ).

The government has some sites on the topic:
Department of Energy site on solar panel recycling
and
a white paper on the topic (somewhat dated; seems to be around 1998)

Finally, here is a magazine article from 2005 showing a list of companies planning on making money from recycling solar panels.

 

In some ways, I want to answer this question by posing the same question differently: what would you do with your panels when they are broken or finished with their useful life?

The reason I turn the question around from the passive "What happens to the panels..." and include the "you" in it (and I don't mean you personnally, but "you" as in any theoretical owner of solar panels) is that for most dirty or hazardous household materials, responsible people will take the time to locate how to dispose of them properly and safely. However, it doesn't "happen": no one will make them do so; they could in fact bury them (not legally but who's watching?), crush them up and hide them in a dumpster, or leave them in a field somewhere. But the resposibility of recycling or disposing typically falls on the user - no one is monitoring them over 25 years to see what they eventually do with their panels.

My point? Nothing "happens" to the panels, be they on a Prius or on a house, any more than anything "happens" to my cordless electric lawn mower's lead acid battery when it finally dies - the owner _decides_ what to do when the time comes. There are always options, and ways to research them, and some of those options will be just fine for the environment. As posted before, some companies are already starting recycling programs, for example, and for that matter, local municipal waste authorities would likely have some advice as well.

Apologies if that was a rant. The original question was asked in good faith. Stepping away from the soapbox...slowly...

 

I sent an email to the company and got a terse reply, "we can't help you '

Wow what great salesmanship. tell me they are under staffed and underfunded and need bucks bad and have no vision for the future re. cars.

 

Thank you all for understanding my silly question is in good faith.

The whole reason I asked is knowing those solar panels being used in space, especially on International Space Station and the Rovers on Mars. When the solar panel we put on those man-made device break down, they got left out there, so called "space junk". I don't recall ever hearing space shuttle brought back any damaged or replaced panel back for recycle.

I can't help but wonder, what exactly we do with those "end-of-life" solar panel ?

Still, pardon my limited modern material science knowledge, I am not aware of the material that made of those solar panels. I figure they probably can not "self resolved", very unlikely possess the ability to "self healing" once they reach the end of the life or die young. What are our options to "solve" their remain ? In plain English, what is the price we have to pay to get those panel recycled ? This price can be anything, is not limited to dollar sign only.

If you live in a place where constantly suffers "hail damage". Solar panels might not be such a good idea because you create much more "left over" - broken solar panels = junk - than what you can harvest - solar energy. Don't even talk about the cost of replacing them. It's a good idea to adopt solar energy, make it an option, no argument about that, but is it practical every where ? People in Alaska might need think about it twice.

It's just something that puzzles me and get me wondering....

 

That sounds great, as long as the manufacture stays in business that long. My fingers are crossed.

 

A lot of space junk does get 'emitted', but not PV panels it seems. A earlier shuttle mission brought back some of the old PV accordions. I emailed NASA's public affairs office and said 'if your just going to throw thoose thing out, let me bid on them.'

To my surprise I got a reply! First the panels get microscopically examined for meteorite damage, then they go to the Smithsonian museum. So, no $1/watt for me.

DAS

 

It's good that you are asking these questions - it means that you are thinking responsibly about what is termed the "cradle to cradle" cost (dollars and environmental) of a system. That is, the cost from making the system, through its lifetime, and into its recycling into another product or system. I think a lot of Prius owners think in similar terms; it's part of a mindset that attracted us to these great cars in the first place.

I notice that you are near the Austin TX area - a lot of your questions about solar might be answered by talking to folks who have solar systems on their house. The yearly "Cool House" tour (link) happens to be this Sunday; I am planning on visiting a few myself (I'll have my white 2005 Prius if you want to look for me).

I am not a solar expert, so I can't fully answer your questions myself, but here are some datapoints I've run across in my research:
From the link I posted earlier to the government labs: most solar panels are safe for landfill.
From the white paper I linked in the previous post: the solar recycling industry doesn't yet have enough panels coming in to make it worthwhile on a large scale. There is a small industry doing it now, because silicon prices are so high, but with the recent construction of new plants targeted specifically at solar (and not computer chips), this is expected to go away because silicon prices will fall (finally!). As more folks reach end-of-life on their systems, the waste stream will be large enough to support industrial-scale recycling, and some companies are looking into it. Also, as I understand the recycling industry, you don't pay them to take your panels, they do it for free (or, in the case of recycling my Prius batteries, they actually pay me to take them!). They make their money by turning those materials into new products.
From the warranty I linked in a previous post: Most panels are designed to withstand 1 inch hail. I know some hailstorms are worse than that here, but, well, that's what's available.
From other government energy lab sites: Solar is cheaper than buying from our current grid mix (of coal, natural gas, and nuclear) if you keep it in operation more than a decade or so (I'm averaging to get that number). And yes, the panels pay for themselves energy-wise (EROEI >1 for you tech folks) in 2-5 years, depending of course on a number of factors.

From my own environmental perspective: The electricity generation you're displacing with solar (especially here in good ol' Texas) is coal. Coal. Burning COAL. Do you honestly think your 25 years of solar panel generation, even if thrown in the landfill (the worst thing you could possibly do with them), are going to be worse for the environment than your share of 25 years of mercury-spewing, fine-particulate-death-causing, intense greenhouse-gas emitting, incredibly fresh-water-wasting [bet you didn't know that] coal? You don't get any form of energy with zero environmental impact, granted, but can solar really be worse than your share of a coal plant?
In the case of panels on the Prius, you are displacing oil, granted a bit less dirty than coal, but with it's own set of problems, that probably played a role in some of our decisions to buy these cars in the first place.

Sorry, folks, stepping away from the soapbox again... slowly... slowly... reaching for my pills...