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08.07.2023 11:25, Gennady Detinich
Czech scientists published work in which reported about a significant reassessment of the life of solar panels. Instead of the promised 20-25 years of operation, dozens of solar farms in the country showed a sharp degradation and damage already in the 11th year of operation. Investors in solar projects must take this data into account, or they will be deceived in their expectations of profitability in the field of solar energy.
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According to the source, monitoring data of 85 solar power plants built in the Czech Republic in 2009-2010 showed that the main reason for the degradation of photo panels was delamination. From the very beginning, the designers did not have an accurate understanding of the “technical capabilities” of the solar panels that were purchased for the projects, and made inflated promises. In addition, the situation was aggravated by the desire to get more profit against the backdrop of savings on construction.
“The service life of power plants built in 2009-2010 has come to an end today, the researchers report. — In 2009-2010, the expected lifetime of photovoltaic power plants in the Czech Republic was 20-25 years. Today, after about 12 years, it turned out that this estimate was too optimistic, and the real service life is about half [заявленного]».
In the process of analyzing the state of photo panels on solar farms, scientists used the same monitoring system – Solarmon-2.0. Very similar results were obtained for all objects. They do not disclose information about panel manufacturers, but they say that purchases were made from first-tier companies. All panels studied were installed at a 35 degree angle and most of them were covered with an EVA TPT laminate.
Savings on frames also led to a reduction in the service life of photopanels – they were weakened, as was the distance between frames and photopanels. Also, the panels were connected in series to increase the voltage, which contributed to the degradation processes.
“After the 11th year, the performance of the panel without resurfacing the siloxane coating (or other repair agent) decreases so much that it must be completely replaced,” — said in the article. The first 10 years, however, the operation of photopanels corresponded to the declared characteristics.
The researchers also conducted an economic analysis of the results obtained from the monitoring data and found that the installations are still profitable, albeit at a much lower margin than originally planned.
“With the current relatively high electricity prices (end of 2022), the payback period for power plants falls well below 10 years, which in the current situation would be sufficient to cover investment costs, — said in a statement. “However, any reduction in the life of the panels results in a lower return on that investment.”
These findings echo a recent study by scientists from Ghana, who also found the lifetimes of solar panels declared by manufacturers to be noticeably overestimated.
2023-07-08 08:25:00
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