“A useful life of 12 to 14 years is about maximum.” “Wrong. Show the productivity (efficiency) of panels over time: They lose their nameplate rating quickly, then continue declining over time but at a slower rate.”
Most production rates are warrantied for 20 years. So if what you say is true that is fantastic, because you get a complete refund and received 15 years of power for free.
reposted from another thread regarding this link
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3225413/posts
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]
here is a link to an actual solar panel datasheet
http://sunelec.com/datasheet-library/download/ds-e20-series-327-residential-solar-panels-datasheet.pdf