Advantages of Solar thermal vs PV

One of the main advantages of solar thermal is the cost per kw. if you buy direct the cost per kw is as little as $250 US per kw. The second advantages is space requirement. you can install 2- 3 more KWs per given area compared to PV. Lastly another major advantage is energy storage, It is very cheap as it is stored as heat in a thermal buffer tanks filled with water or other materials and can be use for domestic hot water usage or for heating purposes. Considering 60% of ones home energy usage is related to heating in some form..

one of the major draw backs of evacuated solar tubes is the over production on heat energy during the summer months, where you might be required to shutter the panels or dump the excess heat.

Slowly PV prices have drop significantly in recent years and PV panels are getting closer and closer to cost per kw. BUT evacuated solar will always have a significantly better space requirement, and cheaper energy storage system. then PV panels will

So depending on your environment it might be significantly cheaper to consider using evacuated solar water heater as your major producer of green energy for ones home and dealing with a little excess heat in the summer, then dealing with the added cost of PV panels with their added space requirement and added costs of what type of storage system will be required batteries or net metering ( if allowed by your local energy company).