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Yes, PV = photovoltaic = solar panels, thanks Nemo.
And yes, there are cheap types of solar panels that don't hold up and they tend to have lousy warranties, but the industry standard is 25 years, it used to be 30-35 years but there are apparently some countries that don't allow warranties that are that long and they didn't want different warranties depending on the country you are in, besides, 25 years is decent.
What your neighbor most likely had were Thin Film solar panels and those do break down in sunlight, failing over time but people buy them because they are cheaper, much cheaper, it's also hard to find any that are made by any companies that have a reputation to uphold.
My parents have PV panels that are around 27 years old, some that are 18 or so years old and some that are just over 10 years old, all of them are working flawlessly, still putting out above their rated output and they just ordered some more that will be covering their barn roof.
One question that you did not ask about electric cars, that is often asked, is the batteries and if they are going to fill our landfills, lead acid batteries are the most recycled thing in our country, over 99% of the lead acid batteries are recycle at the end of their life.
Lithium batteries can and should be recycled and it's not so much the lithium in the battery that we are after but it's the other metals, the copper and aluminum, if I remember right a lithium battery from a Nissan Leaf is worth about $500 as scrap, so I can't imagine anyone setting those out with the trash and that is if they even reach the end of their useful life because it's much more likely that there will be 2nd uses for those batteries and that it will be decades before they start being recycled in large numbers.
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