And it's an apples-to-oranges comparison:  What panels are about is delivering high-quality electricity to an end use site.  To compare to, say, fossil fuels you'd have to count the energy to make the plant, the distribution wiring, poles, insulators, transformers, etc., the crews to clear land and install them, and the carnot cycle and other losses of the generation plant and the transmission line losses.

Panels are NOT about providing electricity to be turned into heat to make more panels.  (If you really were foolish enough to use solar to build panels you could do a LOT better with thermal concentrators and the like for most of the process.)

Think this through for a minute.
The cell manufacturing facilities pay for their electric.
They, and everyone else down the line from the wholesaler to the retailer to UPS, makes a profit.

What happens if 20 years from now if the US reverses it's stand on CadTel? Politics and science don't mix well here. I can recycle cadmium in NiCads, or cadmium in galvanized steel because those are both common and there is commercial value in the recovery. Recycling cadtel from an old panel probably isn't worth the effort, except that tellurium is scarce.

The law here is that you are responsible for the proper disposal of anything you own. You might get stuck with an unexpected disposal cost, or sued because your recycler went out of business leaving a mess. This has happened with asbestos, arsenic and creosote.

The company I work for had warehouses full of crt's because they weren't sure who they could trust to properly handle the lead sheilding. The computers they went with were easier to get rid of because of the gold used. We still have linear fluorescent tubes piling up because the nearest trusted disposal vendor is half a state away. Compact fluorescents, on the other hand can be taken to Home Depot for free.

This is similar to the misguided statement that wind turbines kill birds maybe they do but so do cars, planes and cats to mention just a few. In all the years my turbines have been flying I have not had a bird strike yet.

I don't have solar myself as we get very little sunshine but I do get loads of wind, you need to compare like with like.
horses for courses and all that.

The statement is OBVIOUSLY wrong, Why?

Simple: Manufactures will not sell something for less than their cost.
They buy energy wholesale, selling me the panel at retail.
If you believe the only cost to making PV is energy you have a serious lack of understanding...

I will recover in savings MORE dollars than the panel cost me over its life. Its call payback, measured in a few years, not never.
Q.E.D.

As a Fact, PV will return manufacturing energy cost in about 3 years.

2500 degrees Fahrenheit is NOT energy, its temperature. Take a 4 inch magnifying glass, focus the sun in a tiny spot, there you have 2500F. Big deal!

C02 and toxic chemicals.
one square meter of solar cells carries a burden of 75 kilograms.
You produce CO2, to say something produces 75kg of C02 is Bad then your bad.
http://www.carbontrust.co.uk/resource/conversion_factors/default.htm
1 meter PV in AZ will produce 140w per hour per 10 hour day. Based on link, each day it will save better than 0.5kg C02. Within 150 days its Carbon debit is well paid, with the following Years to the better.

Be-careful what you read, people with a hidden agenda spew out BS frequently, passing it off as fact when its intentionally misleading or out wright LIES. Global warming comes to mind.

BTW: Wind cost energy to produce, wind is the residual of solar energy. Each technology has its pluses and minuses. To make a blanket statement wind is better, shows ignorance. Locations with NO wind its worthless, areas with NO sun PV is worthless. Wind per KW is cheaper than PV, with that said wind is a mechanical system, no 30+ years life without lots of maintenance=$. Over its life total cost on par with PV. PV produces power for decades, clean once in a while...

I disagree, but "lets just say" that your statement is true (for the sake of argument), you left out "using the processes, materials, and types of PV panels that we make today".

In my mind its like saying that the Ford Model-T only had two forward gears and a very stiff suspension, therefore, cars have no future.

Concerning Nellis AFB, regardless of what press releases have said (you don't actually believe every press release, do you? you don't think press releases are ever used to promote an agenda?) They are not trying to save money (like Googles heavy investement in PV) they are buying independence from the grid.