Speaking of the U.S. National Whitewater Center, in May they started an interesting experiment. They installed a 5 kilowatt solar panel on their roof AND they are making its performance public. You can see how much power the roof is producing right now by clicking on this link:

U.S. National Whitewater Center Solar Monitor

Keep in mind that they are on the east coast of the United States. By 10 AM EST (on a clear day) they are at about 40% capacity, producing 1.6 kilowatts or so. [You can see the local weather in Charlotte here]

These are thin-film, flexible solar panels as opposed to the traditional solar cells made of silicon wafers. According to this article:

The array is made up of 36 18-foot-long by 15-inch-wide flexible solar panels, each capable of generating 136 watts of power.

This is the panel they are using, and you would also need the residential inverter shown toward the bottom of the page: FlexLight Individual PV Laminates (68, 124, & 136 Watts)

What would a system like this cost? According to this page, the inverter is about $3,000. According to this page, each 136 watt strip is $700 ($5.14 per watt). So the whole system is:

$700 * 36 + $3,000 = $28,200.

If you round it up to $30,000 to cover the cost of the framework and the wiring, it’s about $6 per watt. Assuming it produces 30 kilowatt-hours per day and electricity is a dime per kilowatt-hour, that’s a 10,000 day payback period, or 27 years (!).

This video shows you a typical installation for thin film panels:

You can learn more about the system here: Flexlight Thin Film Solar roof system

According to the media, the ribbon cutting ceremony was on May 21, 2009. So when you look at the “Lifetime” display, it probably started on that day or close.