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Hi AB Thin film panels are very easily available in the large scale solar industry - lots of those around. But they are no real panacea - they are just over half the efficiency of "conventional" panels. This means you need almost twice the real estate in the sun to produce the same power...

There are a number of studies for it on solar panels. This summary of them is a little dated (2006) - the performance of PV panels has improved markedly since then. But you can get the idea about the range I gave... There are similar studies for wind turbines that I can't be bothered...

Hi Kathryn I'm not referring to financial paybacks either - they are a lot longer! I'm referring to how long it takes a wind turbine or solar panel to produce the energy required to make it in the first place.

Hi AlmostBob Just in case someone might take you seriously on the 55 year thing, I thought I should point out that the current energy payback period for industrial scale wind turbines is between 3-6 months and for "conventional" solar panels is realistically 1-3 years. The smaller payback...

Absolutely - this is by far the biggest thing to remember for a new build. The sustainability of a new home fundamentally depends on its size - the smaller the more sustainable. Or heavy recycling. The most sustainable solution would be to buy an existing small house and save it from...