[Boot Hill]

"It costs as much energy in the manufacture of solar panels than one will ever produce during its entire lifetime."

I've seen that stated from time to time, but I've never seen a credible source to back up the claim. If you've got one, I'd love to have it to post to these threads about solar fraud.

--Boot Hill

[Dog Gone]

This French study concludes that a panel will produce the amount of energy used to create it in 10 years of operation. It's not clear what assumptions were made in arriving at that calculation.

I was repeating the comments of a speaker at an energy seminar I attended a few months ago and I don't know his source.

Even assuming the French study is correct, solar is one of the least efficient sources of energy. At best, it will produce about 2.5 times the energy required to manufacture it, plus it's not an "on demand" source of power. Compare that to oil which produces 80 times the energy consumed to bring it to market.