Solar modules deployed in France in 1992 still provide 75.9% of original output power

I love seeing stuff like this. Iirc, panels are given a 25 year lifespan. If most panels will last this long and longer, it would only make sense to replace/upgrade when they actually break or there is a significant enough increase in efficiency to make it worth the investment. Not unlike the batteries in evs lasting longer than even the original engineers estimated.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

French association Hespul was created in 1991 to set up the first photovoltaic plant connected to the national network in France.

Following the inauguration of the Phébus 1 power plant on June 14, 1992 in Ain, Hespul decided to expand its activity to promote photovoltaics in France, which at the time was almost non-existent.

The association has now revealed that around 10 m2 of the panels, corresponding to around 1 kW, were dismantled from the system last year and submitted to a series of tests according to the international standards.

The panels were placed in a dark room at a controlled temperature and exposed to a light flash of 1000 W/m2 to measure their maximum instantaneous power.

The tests were enabled via a corporate sponsorship by the France-based certification body Certisolis and French solar specialist Isowatt, which carried out the flashing of the panels and the dismantling/reassembly, respectively .

“These results confirm those of various scientific studies referring to the subject,” continued the association, such as the TISO‐10 (TIcino SOlare) PV system, which was grid-connected in Switzerland in 1982.

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