To make you own solar panels, you’ll want to follow a set of detailed instructions that walk you through each step of the process. Without these you’ll waste a whole lot of time reinventing the wheel and you’ll pretty much need an electrical engineering degree.
The fact is, putting together a solar panel isn’t rocket science. Making the actual solar cells (the photovoltaic cells) is a complicated industrial process. It’s not something you can do in your home workshop. But once you have some cells, making the panel is just an assembly process.
Basically, a solar panel is just a bunch of solar photovoltaic cells wired together and held in a frame. The major manufacturers use high quality metal frames, but you can build your own frame out of wood.
Here’s how you do it. You need to get some solar cells and wire them together. Each cell produces a small current — just a few Watts. You wire them together with wire and solder, being sure to connect them according to the instructions.
Depending how many cells you use, and what quality they are, you can make a panel that produces up to 200 Watts of power when it’s in direct sunlight.
One panel won’t solve all of your energy needs, but you can make one for less than $200, which is a big savings compared to the $1,000 price tag of some commercial solar modules.
Solar Photovoltaic Panels
