this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2026
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Technology for a Solar-Punk future.
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My grandmother had an incandescent light bulb in her house that had been there since the early 1900s and still worked. But, compared to modern bulbs it was pretty dim, used very thick glass, and was pretty overbuilt. Modern incandescent bulbs are not built to last. They're brighter, and they're cheaper, but not as durable.
Looking at the picture, I wonder if modern panels will last the same way.
Solar panels in the 1980s were big, inefficient, chonky things. If they weren't hand assembled, they sure looked hand-assembled.
Modern solar cells are much more efficient and clearly machine assembled. They use much finer wires, which might be more fragile:
It wouldn't surprise me if part of the trade off to get cells that have double the efficiency at half the price you also have to give up on some durability.
Modern LED bulbs last far longer than incandescent ones