The solar panel lifespan is about 25 to 30 years long.
Solar thermal panels typically last 10 – 20 years and come with a 10-year warranty. How long it takes to break even on the cost of your solar power pool system depends on where you live. In California or other parts of the Southwest, you’ll break even in 1 to 3 years but places as “far north” as Canada, a solar pool heating system pencils out over a slightly longer period of time. Timeframes for fully recovering the costs of solar panels vary, but last at least several years. An average timeframe is fifteen years from the time owners begin using the solar panel system, including installation cost recovery. Smaller or more efficient systems may only take five years to recover, while less efficient systems can take longer. The solar panel lifespan is about 25 to 30 years long. This means that owners can expected to spend roughly half the lifespan of the solar panel recouping the associated costs, and the latter half of the panel's life saving money on it. Solar panels can save money, but they can also come with high upfront costs. Purchase and installation can vary from several thousand dollars to $15,000 or even $40,000 for the largest versions. The bulk of the price of going solar is now the “soft costs” (installation, permitting, etc.) rather than the solar panel cost. Again referencing the latest US Solar Market Insight report, the average installed cost of a residential solar panel system was $4.72/watt. However, prices vary tremendously by region. “Common residential system prices ranged from less than $3.00/W to just above $7.00/W,” the Solar Energy Industries Association writes.  Rather than look at the payback period why not look at rate of return.(ROI) For instance a system that costs $10,000 and saves $100 per month will pay itself off in 8.33 years. Now let's look at it this way. Say you decided to invest $100/month in an account for 8.33 years. You ROI would be just under 9%. This is a system that is tied to the grid and the utility company gives you credit for any power you produce in excess. The system consists of 12-18 solar panels, inverter / Controller, breakers and wiring needed. It looks like an average system is around $30,000 installed, but with rebates is only about $16,000. Take a look at it: http://tinyurl.com/Earth4EnergyRew Why pay thousands of dollars for solar energy ($27,000 average cost) when you can build your own solar panel system for just a fraction of the retail cost. You can build a single solar panel or you can build an entire array of panels to power your whole house. This is a system that is tied to the grid and the utility company gives you credit for any power you produce in excess. The system consists of 12-18 solar panels, inverter / Controller, breakers and wiring needed. It looks like an average system is around $30,000 installed, but with rebates is only about $16,000. You probably wouldn’t embark on a major improvement project like solar panels unless you planned on staying somewhere for a while. So it’s important to look at the savings over long periods of time. The national average is $20,000 over 20 years, though many states top out over $30,000. You could do some simple math to figure out how long it will take before your solar panels pay for themselves, or you could just look at the map above. In many states, you’re looking at somewhere between 10 and 20 years. That seems like a long time, but many people own houses for that long.  Ofgem have estimated that standard electricity prices will continue to rise by 20% by 2020; with this in mind it could be a very a good time to invest in solar panels. The government plan to cut the Feed-in Tariff by 87% in 2016 so install before then to lock-in the current Feed-in Tariff rate for 20 years. £6,750. As you can see from the table above, solar panels pay for themselves during their first 20 years and most average sized systems bring in a healthy return on investment. In fact, if you go for a 4kW system, the largest size for the highest FiT rate, you will see significantly more return on your Once you take away the cost of installation this typically works out at a profit of around £7,000. After the 20 year period you will no longer earn money from the Feed-in Tariff, however you will continue to generate your own electricity and in doing so save on your energy bills. £6,750. As you can see from the table above, solar panels pay for themselves during their first 20 years and most average sized systems bring in a healthy return on investment. In fact, if you go for a 4kW system, the largest size for the highest FiT rate, you will see significantly more return on your The panels gather this charge and store it in batteries for later use in a variety of household applications. Solar panels can save money, but they can also come with high upfront costs. Purchase and installation can vary from several thousand dollars to $15,000 or even $40,000 for the largest versions.
http://solarenergy.net/energy-saving/solar-power-cost/ http://www.ehow.com/info_7755753_quickly-solar-panels-pay-themselves.html http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/04/current-cost-solar-panels/ https://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100918035337AA9utql https://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100918035337AA9utql http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679371/do-you-like-money-if-so-solar-panels-may-be-for-you http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/are-solar-pv-panels-good-investment http://www.theecoexperts.co.uk/are-solar-pv-panels-good-investment http://www.ehow.com/info_7755753_quickly-solar-panels-pay-themselves.html
how long to recover cost of solar panels