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Poser's avatar

Are solar cells that efficient?

Asked by Poser (7808points) July 16th, 2008

I recently heard that it takes more energy to manufacture a solar cell than it will produce in it’s lifetime. Any idea if this is true?

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3 Answers

Lightlyseared's avatar

While it was true in the 90’s that a solar cell would never pay back the energy to produce that is no longer the case. It can take between 1–4 years to pay back the cost of manufacture but the cell will last for around 30 years. NREL paper

Lightlyseared (34866points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
mattbrowne's avatar

The break-even point will be reached soon. And then we still got 5 billions years of sunshine left. We need to think long term.

mattbrowne (31735points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
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