But, longevity may be the most important factor when choosing PV panels. Right now, the best mass-manufactured silicon PV panels appear to have a degradation rate that implies a real working longevity of at least 125 years. And that may improve as we learn better ways to manufacture all the components of the panels.

This is the startling economics of PV – after your up-front initial investment is recouped, you have a century or more of actual “free” energy from tech that has no moving parts and require only minimal maintenance. Unlike the early promise of nuclear, this seems to me to indicate that, yes, it will be cheaper to literally rip the meters off the walls, than to maintain the expense of a billing system for energy which essentially costs zero to produce.

It will be interesting to see what can be done with perovskite solar cells over the next decades, and I hope the marvelous advances in the lab will translate into actual marketable products.