How to MAKE PV Solar Panels

This is not "How to make PV Solar Cells".
It is possible to home-make Copper Oxide and other kinds of materials
but that is a whole nother story which I may do in the future.

I may be a little bit ambitious to try to show you how I made PV
Solarpanels out of various types of cells I collected and how and
where I obtained them rather inexpensively, and some of the differences
in the various kinds, but most of all, how to work with them to get
free electricity under the light of the sun and other sources of light.

In essence, this involves ways to connect cells, which may produce
more or less than one volt, and not only try to increase power output
but also decrease the load, that is, efficiently conserve the energy
whether it is meager or significant.
For example, even the weakest solar panels can run watches,
calculators, radios, charge batteries, and if a computer were
specifically designed to, it would be as solar-powerable as a calculator.

Here are some pictures of Solar Panels which I have constructed.

Step 1 Supplies and Sources

What you may be able to use to build a useful solar panel:

"Broken" solar cells. They are very cheap and they work, they are
just randomly shaped. They are usually crystalline silicon ones,
which ALWAYS (ha!) look broken even when they are not.

Surplus solar cells. Amorphous silicon printed on glass (check) are
excellent, usually producing more than a volt, and much sturdier
than the thin ones that break in bulk quantities. If these break, we
can fix them, usually.

Indium Copper Selenide Cells. These are "new" and are conveniently
sold as glass tiles with easy to solder tabs.

Any of the above, sold as cells prepared for assembly into panels;
in other words, complete and solder - ready or with wires and tabs.
(I will explain how to prepare inferior quality cells in this instructable.)

Miscellaneous items:
Wire Glue - There is already another instructable for using wire glue
on Broken solar cells. (link)

Brass extrusions, bracket |_| shaped - Convenient for connecting to glass cells.

Solder
Soldering Iron - low wattage
Small flat-head screwdriver
Thin (around 20 AWG or less) stranded copper wire

Lamp cord or Speaker Wire
Alligator clips

Deep Picture Frames or Shadow Boxes (Enclosure)
-look for imported frames at the El Cheapo store and pray a machine made them

Acrylic/Lexan/Plexiglas/Etc clear polymer sheets
Router or Dremel to cut out the middle of one out of three sheets
RTV (Silicone Glue) - or :
High Temperature Hot Melt Glue (Caution-you don't want the sun to melt it!)

Rectifier Diode such as 1N4001 or 1N4004

Voltage doubler or multiplier circuits (you can make) to increase voltage output.
-examples: ICL7660, MAX1044, MAX232, etc.

Wide Sticky Tape
Double Sticky Foam Tape

Rechargeable Nickel Batteries
Gel Cells or Car Battery (you got one, might as well use it until it's useless)
-Li Ion not recommended because they are harder to charge

Analog volt meter (only because it doesn't need batteries like a digital one)

AC Inverter - if you are charging a powerful battery and would occasionally
run some mains-powered appliance. Some UPS's can be easily modified to
be inverters, if they can be turned on after a power failure.

Sources:
Broken Solar Cells:
Herbach and Rademan
Silicon Solar
Electronic Goldmine

Glass (Amorphous) Solar Cells:
Electronic Goldmine
Note:Other links here may also supply Glass Solar Cells

Indium Copper Selenide Cells:
All Electronics
Edmund Scientific
Electronic Goldmine

Other sources:
Cheap weather damaged solar powered outdoor night lights
-(common failures are circuit corrosion and defective batteries, not the solar cells)
Defective solar calculators, solar charged flashlights, etc.

Perhaps a little off topic:
For a reasonably good deal on Complete and Useful Solar Panels I recommend
"Solar Car Battery Chargers" that are about 1 or 2 watts and between $20 and $30,
whenever an opportunity to get some arises. But those are what I am trying to show
how to Make an approximate equivalent of.

Comments

[sivacivil121]

I have interested to make a solar circuit and hence required the materials used. can u give me the details. send me mail at [e-mail]

[mdini1]

hello my name is mouhamadou nuru
plz i would need to know more about solar energy
i woyuld need to have more detailed on making my own

[jeweltolentino7]

Commercial Solar Panels are Expensive!
Fact: It will take you more than 10 years to pay back
Solution: Using Surplus Solar Cells You can get pay back in 1-2 years
There is an Engineer from Chicago his name is John Sommer
He explain it All in his
DIY Solar Panels Blog
Search for him using Google - look for "Top DIY Solar Panels Review"
or just use this link
http://topdiysolarpanels.com

[johnchotu]

Hi friends. iam john from india and i am intrested in making solar panal and solar power i need some steps so can u help me in it this is my mail [e-mail]

[sguin]

I have interested to make a solar circuit and hence required the materials used. can u give me the details. send me mail at [e-mail]

[rkrishnan]

hi friends my name is radhakrishnan pls give me ids how to do solar pnals?

[diolt]

Interesting & informative post. Please can some one clear how many panels required to generate 1000 Volts?

[evomr978]

at least 1,587 high efficiency cells. If each cell is producing a minimum of 0.63 V.

[ed_loy]

what are the sources of those cells?

[lhouse]

Ebay, broken cells

[scraptopower]

Thanks, good instructable!

What's with all the people asking you to email them how to's ? Didn't they bother to read this ?

[ehudwill]

Nice informative instructable. Thanks for sharing.

[lizman]

Thank you very much!!!!

[lizman]

Hey guys im lisolomzi im doing my B-Tech and im doing a project on PV panel. I must design and manufacture it. so guys i need some information how to go about to design and manufacture it plz email me on [e-mail].

[frankjohnston25]

"MAKE SOLAR PANEL":http://makesolarpanelseasy.com

[adnan.ad88]

hi my name is Adnan and i want to know that how can i creat our own solar panels and solar cells.

[solarJoan]

Hi Adnan, I'm Joan. I think you may be interested in manufacturing solar panels. If so, you can send me a mail. And then, I can give you more information for you. [e-mail]. this is my mail box.  I've deal with many people who are now manufacturing the solar panels.
I'm looking forward to hearing you.

[rahulpatelcvc]

hi joan,my name is rahul and i want to know that how can i creat our own solar panels and solar cells.
help me plzzzz....

[sayyidmushtaq]

hi joan

i am on a project of making a solar powered drone(unmanned aerial vehicle)
now my guide has asked me to come with the information on its ratings.
please tell me how many solar panels are required for ratings of voltage and current.
i need some typical values. i may need some 14 volts for my aircraft.
please send me a list of ratings with different values.
thank you

[awanga1]

i wouid comment on your good job but please sent me steps in making a solar panel my email is [e-mail]

[saluu20]

hai this is salman from india and im intrested in making solar panal and solar power i need some steps so can u help me in it this is my mail [e-mail]

[Aatif]

Hi. This is Aatif Khan, i m also intersted in solor pannel. please let me know, my e-mail address is [e-mail].

[melvi]

Please help spread the word- what the world needs now is a Manhattan type project to manufacture solar cells cheaply to give to everyone free and in the process create public sector jobs. Socialism maybe, but the private sector will take too long. The world needs a silver bullet right now. And this bullet tackles both the economy and the climate change crisis. 1 Trillion not enough, why not get 2 or even 3 from whatever source Bush got his 5. Seems easy enough. If you agree - please tell your congressmen, senators and anybody who would listen.

[evanpnz]

Actually cheap solar cells using printed nano-particle technology are already a reality, but right now the entire production of the first factory using this new tech (in California) is going to large scale commercial applications rather than private buyers.

[poosthuizen]

Hi evanpnz, can you perhaps give me more information on this nano-techcology as there is no solar cells factories or any production in South Africa everything must be imported and is very expensive. My Email address is [e-mail]

[poosthuizen]

 Hi there, I am from South Africa, with long sunny days all year around.  With bad administration our country energy is in a crises end electricity prices went sky high, I am looking into solar or wind energy but this is a relatively new concept here and technology very expensive, is there somebody that can give advice on how to live of the grid, where to look for cells, what type of cells, wind energy the minimum wind speed needed and what type of generator etc. I am no slouch technically but the is new to our country.

[vee-man.mol]

you are such a lier thier is so much soler power you could eat it

[Amathongo]

Have you tried solar water heating, low flow shower heads, geyser-timers etc etc. I have and its been quite good but I also want to get some PV panels and build up a battery bank, it seem expensive still in SA and there is conflicting information, I went to an Eskom conference last week and advised them that their video and info on turning down geysers was incorrect, the thermo. needs to be zero'd (click) before turning to the desired temp. They said they know.?

[Cleasonsook]

would like to know about "ICL7660"

When I check my local Electronics store
they list 3 different versions

ICL7660CPA
ICL7660CSA
ICL7660SCP

dose it make a difference which one I pick ?

[ntn923]

It shouldn't make too much difference. The different letters at the end are often just differences in max levels, whether of efficiency or of other small details. For a small project like this, any of the three should work fine. If you'd like more info on the chips, the datasheets can be found on alldatasheets.com, ti.com, or most other electronics providers sites.

[Andy the Making Solar Panels enthusiast]

It can be possible to build a cheap working solar panel at home. I found a guide to making solar panels. 

[napjax3000]

Very nice article and illustrations. You gave step by step instructions that were easy to understand. I've seen a few more of these on other sites, but got a little lost. Keep up the good work.

[roseler]

hello... I am Roseler and i want to know that how can i create our own solar panels and solar cells.

[AlphaTwin]

Pretty Darn cool, I've got a little different angle on this. Let me explain. I live in the Midwest U.S. It's gets pretty darn cold/expensive in the winter. With the price of Corn sky rocketing it's no longer cost effective to heat my house with my corn burner. So I started playing with electrolysis to make Hydrogen to burn in my Natural gas Furnace. The problem is if I do this with the grid I'm burning coal not to mention it would be more efficient to forgo the electrolysis step. So here's what I want to do. I'd like to keep a battery charged from a solar panel. My output to the electrolyzer from the battery will be about 12 volts at 20 amps. Keep in mind it will only run for about 10 minutes every 20-30 minutes . That's it, if I can get it to work it will save me about $2000 a year in heating expenses.

[evanpnz]

Be very careful - hydrogen is a dangerous gas. One little bit of air in there and you have a bomb. I will explain a little more. Hydrogen is the smallest gas molecule you can get. So it leaks through almost any sealing material. Also because of its low molecular weight it reacts with oxygen very quickly which means its "burn rate" is very fast. A lot of the reason you are not already driving a hydrogen powered vehicle has to do with these properties - many millions of dollars have been spent trying to make hydrogen safe to store and make it burn slowly enough not to destroy the engine.

[curt41]

Alpha twin hey i have been looking into hydrogen for a furnace also. Maybe we can share ideas. please get back to me [e-mail] thanks

[digitalenigma]

i have pondered hydrogen heating myself, someone needs to make a instructable on hydrogen fuell cell heatingsystems powered by solar energy

[rpvanpatt]

I am wondering how much power you can get from something like this. Also, what you could power or charge with it. And this may sound stupid, but can solar panels receive energy bouncing off a mirror? Thanks

[VIRON]

Solar panels do receive energy reflected from a mirror and occasionally they are used with mirrors to collect more light or collect light from a different angle when the sun moves. In the picture above (IN STEP 1), , I put in series a 5 volt, 6 volt, and 7.5 volt panels I made from broken cells which were sorted by approximate size. The 5 volt panel made about an amp in full sun so it's 5 watts. The breaking of a solar cell in half generally makes two cells with half the power. The whole thing with the 3 panels stuck together in series is about 10 watts in full sun, that's over 12 volts and "almost" 1 amp. It can charge a car battery during times of full sun, and when the car battery is needed, it has stored up enough power to give a LOT of power for a short time (which is the normal use of car batteries anyway). I charge 12V batteries with solar panels to run radios (ham or CB) and lights if, when, and where utility power is not available. Usually, 15 to 18 volts panels are used to charge a car battery, so there is still extra charging voltage when it's not full sun. Most consumer car-battery charging panels put out about 200 mA at 15 or 18 volts, and are intended for cars not driven often. A car battery can power small plug-in things (few hundred watts) if they are plugged into an "inverter". This can be scaled up with more cells, panels, and batteries, but then it helps to know a smart electrician. Usually heat needs the most power and is done with water-heating panels, which are plumbing rather than electric. A solar powered hairdryer may be a particularly troublesome thing.

[urthlvr]

My son is going to do a science experiment on solar power for a car. Can you please send me instructions on how you are doing it to: [e-mail]?