>At 01:12 PM 3/30/01 -0600, you wrote:
><snip>
>>I used to think that PV panels would last forever, but over the past couple
>>of years, my Carrizo solar panels (which are at least 20 years old) seem to
>>have lost nearly half of their output.
>
>
>I don't think that the Carrizo panels are a fair example. They were fried
>before you got them.
The carizzo project used secondary mirrors to roughly
triple the solar intensity on the panels. I'm sure that
accelerated the normal degradation. In addition, I think
the manufacturing quality of solar modules has improved
significantly since 1980...
>My oldest panels are over 30 years old and still meet the same current
>measurements that I made in 1973.
>
>Ron Schroeder
>WD8CDH
>E. E. S.
>wd8cdh@bnl.gov
>rjs@bnl.gov
>ron@112motors.com
>631 344-4561 Day
>631 286-5677 Nite
>
>
