More politically motivated clap-trap from the usual suspects.
Consider the source of this article:
Media Trackers.
As usual, follow the money: " Media Trackers is primarily sponsored by the Tea Party non-profit and training group American Majority, which is funded for the most part by the Sam Adams Alliance"
For example the claim:
solar panels have a typical lifespan of only 15 to 20 years
is factually incorrect.
In reality the lifespan is much longer. I personally know people still using panels made in the 1970s
From
Engineering.com "For monocrystalline silicon, the most commonly used panel for commercial and residential PV, the degradation rate is less than 0.5% for panels made before 2000, and less than 0.4% for panels made after 2000. That means that a panel manufactured today should produce 92% of its original power after 20 years"
I have no doubt the courthouse installation in question suffered from the usual bureaucratic missteps, waste and corruption:.
Let's see 1.2 million for 196 kW = $6.12 per watt. Much more than should have been paid for an installation of this size, even in 2010.
Of course bureaucratic missteps, waste and corruption never occurs in the heavily tax payer subsidized fossil fuel or nuclear power industries, does it?
Considering that prices have continued to drop (currently at about $3 per installed watt) and that
grid parity has currently been achieved in 10 states and is projected to be achieved in all 50 states in 2016 and it's fairly obvious that this is not a fact based report.
Meanwhile in the real world,
growth of photovoltaics continues along at an exponential rate.Of course it is still all too little, too late....