[DoughtyOne]

The big PV hidden animal, is that they degrade.

Have they made improvements on that?

[RegulatorCountry]

If the day finally comes that the benefit of solar outweighs the cost, I suspect it’s going to be more in the form of thermoelectric ceramic roof tiles, myself. It’s not so much the sunlight itself that generates electricity with that, but the heat differential between the exposed exterior ceramic and the cool(er) underside. The aesthetics would be much improved, too. They haven’t proved prone to degrading with many hundreds of thousands of hours of test use.

[familyop]

"The big PV hidden animal, is that they degrade.

Have they made improvements on that?"

Improvements weren't needed for longevity. Modules (them thar electric kind of solar panels) are good for about 25 years on average for the purpose of assessing costs. Other improvements have been made (improvements by Kyocera being good examples).

Other components, like controllers and inverters should be capable of accepting more current than required by the installed system. That way, the chances of failure are much lower (less heat). And that said, I haven't had any failures in those components. All of the necessary breakers and other protection should be installed with the system.

Batteries don't last so long, but some batteries are much better than others if well charged every cycle with a great controller. The most cost-effective batteries that I know of for small systems are Crown lead-acid batteries (among the thickest plates).

Learn safety procedures for electrical installations, though. Installing solar-electric power can be hazardous without a good knowledge of the NEC and safety steps on the job.