Comments on: How has Solar Efficiency Changed Over the Years? http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/ SolarDave: DIY Solar Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:52:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: SRoeCo Solar http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-747 SRoeCo Solar Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:35:35 +0000 http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/#comment-747 Jaxsun makes a great point. Solar panels are not like computers. If you always waited to buy a faster computer, you'd never own one. Rebates only decrease over time as the gov't has temporarily provided money to get solar started, not to keep it going. And every $ you pay in electricity bills is rent money to the electric company. If you install solar panels, then every $ you don't pay to the electric company goes to pay off the cost of solar. And eventually (when you've saved as much money as the solar system cost), then every $ saved is money in your pocket. Cheers, Shawn Jaxsun makes a great point. Solar panels are not like computers. If you always waited to buy a faster computer, you’d never own one.

Rebates only decrease over time as the gov’t has temporarily provided money to get solar started, not to keep it going.

And every $ you pay in electricity bills is rent money to the electric company. If you install solar panels, then every $ you don’t pay to the electric company goes to pay off the cost of solar. And eventually (when you’ve saved as much money as the solar system cost), then every $ saved is money in your pocket.

Cheers,
Shawn

]]> By: Solar Power » Moore’s Law Apply to Solar Panel Efficiency? http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Solar Power » Moore’s Law Apply to Solar Panel Efficiency? Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:18:41 +0000 http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/#comment-16 [...] Jaxsun however pointed out from the previous post that this can be misleading since this is on a cell level and not on a panel level (panels have loss).    [...] [...] Jaxsun however pointed out from the previous post that this can be misleading since this is on a cell level and not on a panel level (panels have loss).    [...]

]]> By: Jaxsun http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Jaxsun Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:52:53 +0000 http://www.solardave.com/index.php/how-has-solar-efficiency-changed-over-the-years/#comment-9 be sure you're comparing apples to apples when looking at effieciencies. Cell eff and Module eff are two different things. The difference being the losses resulting from encapsulating the cells into a mudule. The "clear" top sheeting isn't exactly clear (resulting on losses), the traces on the cell block sunlight (more loss) and stringing cells together results in higher terminal and line currents (if/when paralleled) resulting in greater resistive losses. Point being, the chart above is "Cell" efficiencies, don't expect to see modules quite that high. Although the overall trend will be the same. be sure you’re comparing apples to apples when looking at effieciencies. Cell eff and Module eff are two different things. The difference being the losses resulting from encapsulating the cells into a mudule. The “clear” top sheeting isn’t exactly clear (resulting on losses), the traces on the cell block sunlight (more loss) and stringing cells together results in higher terminal and line currents (if/when paralleled) resulting in greater resistive losses. Point being, the chart above is “Cell” efficiencies, don’t expect to see modules quite that high. Although the overall trend will be the same.

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