"Mike Spera" wrote:

If I recall the article I read a few years back correctly, conventional
glass covered solar panels require more energy to make than they will ever
produce in their entire lives. Anyone have any data?

http://jupiter.clarion.edu/~jpearce/.../netenergy.pdf


ABSTRACT
A number of detailed studies on the energy requirements on the three types of
photovoltaic (PV) materials, which make up the majority of the active solar
market: single crystal,polycrystalline, and amorphous silicon were reviewed.
It was found that modern PV cells based on these silicon technologies pay for
themselves in terms of energy in a few years (1-5 years). They thus generate
enough energy over their lifetimes to reproduce themselves many times (6-31
reproductions)depending on what type of material, balance of system, and the
geographic location of the system. It was found that regardless of material,
built-in PV systems are a superior ecological choice to centralized PV
plants. Finally, the results indicate that efficiency plays a secondary role
to embodied energy in theoverall net energy production of modern solar cells.