well, energy payback ideas from this forum are decidedly different from what I have heard.
My partners family in NZ - one of them is an engineer who consults on building solar panel plants - I can't remember what the payback was - but it is massive - far far more than 4 or 7 years that has been talked about. He says it is a crock at present.
When you think about it - how much energy does it take to melt a kilo of lead? How much energy does it take to produce those nice little aluminum frames around panels? How much energy does it take to deliver them from factory to distributor then to wholesaler then to reatiler then to customer. The the bloke has to drive out to fit them - and so on and so on and so on. Then the energy to smelt the copper for all the bits. Plastic for the battery cases.
My god, think about it --- for a few watts on a roof - and 30 years for panel life ----------- right!!
Lets check in 20 shall we.
Its like compact fluro bulbs - anyone ever ran the damm things continuous to see how many hours??
I have - and I can tell you it is way way short of the mark.
imo - almost all of this energy stuff is feel good crud.
