wrote on 6/27/2017 7:29 AM:
Question: How much energy does it take to produce a solar array (Aluminum mining, refining, manufacture, Silicon panel manufacture, etc.)? How does it compare to the energy output of the array over its life?

It varies with the location (the amount of sun, basically) where the panels are
used, the kind of panel, etc, but the current range is 1 to 4 years. That's a big
improvement compared to 20 or 30 years ago, due to using much thinner silicon
wafers, fabricating higher efficiency solar cells, and other manufacturing
improvements.

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Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf