Perovskite cells have not been demonstrated to last nearly as long as silicon cells. If you trade cheaper, conversion efficient cells, but they last 1/5 the age, the system cost is much higher because you'll have to re-pay for replacement / reinstallation costs much more frequently.
The first company, just started selling perovskite solar cells with 10 years warranty on stable energy production and 25 years warranty on working without drastic loss in function, so there seems to be improvement.
The article mentions 25 year linear degradation warranty, what would be the remaining capacity after 25 years? Because the article doesn't mention it, I assume it's worse than silicon. For silicon it is typically 80% after 25% with most panels commonly exceeding that 80% mark.
While I can speak to the veracity of your statement. If true it would feel that this is industry finding a way to create a long term subscription fee to buying their product?
It would be the worst outcome possible - the beauty of solar is that it lasts for 40-50 years while only having to replace inverter / maintain the system.
Thankfully commercial grade and investors wouldn't bank on that.
Things that are exposed to the weather frequently need to be replaced more often than every 40-50 years. Like roofs. And cables. And anything that is an external attachment to the structure.
You might not have to replace the solar panels themselves except on a 40-50 year basis, but if you’ve had to replace everything else that’s been exposed on a more frequent basis, I would have to ask Mr. Theseus how much of that solar system is really the same, and how many of those costs would have to be re-incurred over that longer period of time due to the shorter life span of the other products.
I know our roof is in pretty bad shape, and will need to be replaced in five to ten years. The house was built in the mid-80s, we bought it in 2008, and I know it’s had at least one or two roof replacements in that time.
Most roofs aren’t even built to code, which is supposed to be the floor below which building quality cannot go. Instead, they build to whatever they can get away with, and in many places, that is much lower than code because the building inspectors are busy and don’t check, or they’re careless, or they get bribed off.
In most single family homes, the more you learn about the construction of your specific house and what standards they were supposed to build to but didn’t, the more horrified you will become.
Like the builder leaving out a $2.00 piece of flashing because either they didn’t care, or they thought it was too expensive. Of course, the result of that $2.00 flashing not being there is tens of thousands of dollars of damage that occurs to your house over the next decade-plus, for which your insurance company will pay precisely $0.00, since it’s not the result of a single catastrophic event.
That’s scandalous. But outside of fraud/incompetence, there’s no way anyone should expect to replace their entire roof even every 40 or 50 years. Repairs sure, but replacement? No chance.
Different building philosophy.in Europe, much more is spent on materials and labor and the expectation that it will be used without change for a long time, and pay itself off.
The US is geared more towards lower up front cost. Neither is inherently wrong.
There are also feedback mechanisms where the most common option becomes cheaper, and the specialty more expensive.
Why pay 3x for something that lasts 3x as long? What if it lasts less than 3x as long? I don’t know which actually has a better Long term route.
I imagine most of it comes down to price sensitivity and owner demographics. Rich Americans often have ceramics or other roofing, presumably because they can afford it and would rather not deal with it.
I’m raising a new building this winter and will certainly go with shingles based on my budget.
It's not actually clear to me if this article is talking about Perksovite cells at all, or a different set manufacturing techniques improving on current common techniques for the current state of practice. I think should have hung my comment off of some of the other threads on this that were in a side discussion of Perk cells.
