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Since you've worked in this area, what is the initial cost to the consumer to have solar panels installed? What is the reliabilty and maintainabilty of these panels?
I think folks would be more open to going in this direction if it were affordable and they could see a return on their investment. We here about solar panels and never hear about the costs and returns.
I researched it before for a house I lived in in Phoenix. You are looking at a starting costs anywhere between 20k to 30k or so to begin. Depends on if you are a solar grid tie or a solar off grid system. Off grid means you need to store your own energy and you need a battery backup to hold that energy. Much costs in having your own batter bank. If you are grid-tie that means you still use electricity no different than you do right now right off the grid but the solar system you have is selling electricity back to the electric company at the same time so if you use less than you sell, you could see a check coming your way instead of writing one for the Electric Company.
Solar panels seem to have warranties often around 10 years at the least and many many more years beyond that for some. The Photovoltaic process never degrades. What does degrade is that the sealed system you need for it to react inside which should take decades and most importantly scratches on the glass that lets the sun go through to make the PV happen. When the glass gets scratched or cloudy and whannot, that is what mostly decreases a PV panel's efficiency.
I'm thinking what they need to do is like they do in NASCAR where they have their windshields covered in layers of some 3M film and you just pull a tab when they come into pit row and when that top layer is peeled off, it's like a new windshield all over again. Do that to the PV panels. Dust them off throughout the year and then at the end of the year, peel a layer. Another analogy would be the light film added to your smartphone screen. Something like that.