Solar panel lifespan, and how long the battery and inverter last
A solar panel does not wear out on a date. It makes a little less each year, and the datasheet says how much less in writing. A battery is different again: it is rated in charge cycles, and its end of life is a capacity figure rather than a failure.
This page reads those numbers from a field review and two named datasheets. Dirt on the glass and faults in the wiring cost output on top of them, and finding both is what our solar panel maintenance and cleaning visits check.
What the field measurements say: about half a percent a year
In 2012 the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory pulled together nearly 2,000 degradation rates measured on real modules and systems over forty years of field testing. The median was 0.5 percent a year. That is a review of what panels in the field actually did, which is why it is the number to start from rather than a brochure.
A median is the middle of a spread. Some systems in the review lost less and some lost more, so treat it as a typical figure rather than a promise for your roof. The promise is on the datasheet.
What one panel datasheet guarantees, year by year
The JinkoSolar Tiger Neo JKM580-605N-72HL4-(V) is a 580 to 605 watt module. Its datasheet carries two warranties and two degradation figures:
- 12 year product warranty
- Defects in the panel itself.
- 30 year linear power warranty
- A minimum output every year for thirty years.
- 1 percent in the first year
- The datasheet allows a bigger drop in year one than in any later year.
- 0.40 percent a year after that
- The figure the linear warranty is built on.
The guaranteed minimum, worked out from those figures
| End of year | At least this share of rated output |
|---|---|
| 1 | 99.0 percent |
| 10 | 95.4 percent |
| 20 | 91.4 percent |
| 25 | 89.4 percent |
| 30 | 87.4 percent |
Year 30 comes out at 87.4 percent, the figure the datasheet prints. Ask for the datasheet of the panel you are actually quoted, because the terms differ between makers and between models of the same maker. How to read the efficiency and heat lines on the same sheet.
Solar battery lifespan is counted in cycles
A cycle is one charge and one discharge. A battery on a hybrid system that fills in the day and empties overnight does about one a day. The Deye RW-F10.2, a LiFePO4 home battery, is rated like this on its maker’s page:
- At least 6,000 cycles
- Measured at 25°C, emptied to 90 percent each time, charged and discharged at half its capacity per hour.
- End of life at 70 percent
- The cycle count runs until the battery holds 70 percent of what it held new. It still works then, with less in it.
- 10 year warranty, 32 MWh throughput
- Two limits on the same promise: the years, and the total energy passed through it.
6,000 cycles at one a day is about 16.4 years of arithmetic, and the warranty is 10. The gap is the reason to read both: the cycle figure was measured in a laboratory at 25°C, and the warranty is what the maker will actually stand behind. Ask where the battery will be mounted and what the warranty says about its conditions. On an off-grid system built from separate parts, the charge controller decides how hard the battery is worked, which is why choosing and sizing the controller matters to its life too.
Grid tied, hybrid and off grid: which needs a battery at all
Inverters: get the warranty in writing
We are not printing an inverter lifespan here, because we have not read an inverter datasheet for this page and a range copied from elsewhere would be a guess. The figure that matters for your system is on the warranty card of the inverter you are quoted. Ask for it before you sign, alongside the panel and battery terms.
Replacing or adding an inverter on an existing system, including a move to a hybrid one that can take a battery, is part of our battery and inverter installation and upgrades.
What people ask about how long solar lasts
How long do solar panels last in the Philippines?
They do not stop on a date. They make a little less each year. A field review of nearly 2,000 measured degradation rates, published by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 2012, found a median loss of 0.5 percent a year.
A current datasheet puts a number on it in writing: the JinkoSolar Tiger Neo JKM580-605N-72HL4-(V) carries a 30 year power warranty guaranteeing at least 87.4 percent of its rated output at year 30.
How long does a solar battery last?
A battery is rated in cycles, not years. The Deye RW-F10.2, a LiFePO4 battery, is rated for at least 6,000 cycles at 90 percent depth of discharge, and its warranty runs 10 years.
End of life on that datasheet means 70 percent of the original capacity, so a battery at the end of its rated cycles still holds power. It holds less of it.
What is the difference between a product warranty and a power warranty?
The product warranty covers defects in the panel itself, the frame, the glass, the junction box. The power warranty guarantees a minimum output over time. On the Jinko datasheet the first runs 12 years and the second 30, and people often quote the longer one as if it were both.
Does a panel stop working when its warranty ends?
No. The power warranty is a promised minimum, 87.4 percent at year 30 on the datasheet above. The datasheet says nothing about year 31, and neither should anyone selling it to you.
Keeping a system near its datasheet
Dirt on the glass costs output that no power warranty covers. A maintenance visit inspects the panels, wiring and inverter, cleans the glass, tests what the system is producing and leaves a written report. See what solar panel maintenance and cleaning covers.
Send us your datasheets
Tell us what is on your roof, or what you have been quoted, and we will read the warranty terms with you and tell you what they actually promise.
Tell us the property and what you are trying to cut, and you will get a written answer with a size and a next step. No visit is booked and nothing is charged for asking.
Sources, read 1 October 2026: D. C. Jordan and S. R. Kurtz, “Photovoltaic Degradation Rates: An Analytical Review”, Progress in Photovoltaics, 2012, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, OSTI record 1045052; JinkoSolar datasheet JKM580-605N-72HL4-(V), F8 EN edition; Deye ESS product page for the RW-F10.2. Named products are examples of how a datasheet is written, not a recommendation or a quotation.