“But will the panels even survive 9 years...time will tell”
Did you even read that article?! Here is an excerpt. All Caps emphasis mine
•A 33W solar panel (Arco Solar 16-2000) actually outperformed it’s original factory specifications 30 YEARS after it was manufactured.[2]
•World`s first modern solar panel still works after 60 YEARS.[3]
•Kyocera has reported several solar power installations that continue to operate reliably and generate electricity even though they are nearly 30 YEARS old.[4]
Since that statement was made by lacrew, the poster of the article, I guess you need to ask him if he read his own article. But honestly, no I didn’t read the article. Since he posted the article and asked the question I assumed that kind of information wasn’t in the article. Thus I googled to find out what the life span of solar panels are and that was what I had read, the link I posted.