Here's what makes it worse imo.
Imagine someone invents a machine that can give infinite energy.
Do you
a) sell that energy, or b) give the technology to build the machine to everyone.
Clearly b is better for society, a is locking up profits.
Imagine someone invents a machine that can give infinite energy.
Do you
a) sell that energy, or b) give the technology to build the machine to everyone.
Clearly b is better for society, a is locking up profits.
This non-hypothetical got us global warming already
Technically: a solar panel is just such a machine. You'll have to wait a long, long time but the degradation is slow enough that you can probably use a panel for more than several human life times at ever decreasing output. You will probably find it more economical to replace the panel at some point because of the amount of space it occupies and the fact that newer generations of solar panels will do that much better in that same space. But there isn't any hard technical reason why you should discard one after 10, 30 or 100 years. Of course 'infinite' would require the panel to be 'infinitely durable' and likely at some point it will suffer mechanical damage. But that's not a feature of the panel itself.