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Even small solar panels are expensive, so they need to last a long time in order to make their money back.

If you take the average price for a kWh of electricity in the US (let's say $0.19), combine that with the average amount of peak sunshine (let's say 5 hours), and allow for losses through inefficiencies, this panel can make about 1.5 kWh a day, or just under 30 cents a day of power.

Also: Avoid these 8 solar mistakes that cut your power output in half - I learned the hard way