On Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 06:46:56PM +0530, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > I saw that, but your post made me think the state of the art has > advanced since 2007. No?
The problem with EROEI is that the total lifecycle computation is complicated, and there are several ways to do it, which produce different numbers. E.g. there are simple fabrication steps to reduce the energy by e.g. dropping the aluminium frames from the assembly. You could double the lifetime by going back to silicone sealing between glass instead of acetate foil which is poor water vapor barrier, and so on. My hunch is that there will be progress by going away from glass and using metal foil and sheet metal, or straight polymer. I think 100:1 will be possible, eventually.
