...with the sunlight striking at or close to perpendicular; no dust, scratches, bird crap, salt spray or pollen on the glass; at around 25C and absolutely no shadows of any size; straight out of the box (they lose about 5% output in the first year and about 1% every year thereafter). After about 25 to 30 years, the good ones are done. So far, there is no recycle program for them either, so at present, they end up at the dump.
More bad news for the Mother Gaia supporters:
USA Oil Boom
With traditional oil mining techniques, it is estimated that only about 5% of oil in the wells has been recovered. Frakking is opening up huge resources in the USA. Peak oil? Not in my lifetime and probably not in the lifetime of my great grandkids.
And we haven't even touched oil shale in the USA yet:
recoverable oil equal to total world oil supply
Only if you care about short term return. In the long term, they are all cheaper.
Don't bet on the stock exchange baswell:
Green Power Failure