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Can you make a larger solar cell out of smaller ones?
Is it possible to make a larger solar cell out of small ones, such as those from solar calculators?
I understand you can chain smaller cells into panels - would it be possible to use this same premise to recycle the incredibly small output from a calculator cell into something actually useful?
Comments
6 years ago
Aside from what steveastrouk pointed out. No you cannot make a large cell from smaller ones. However you can wire up a bunch of small solar cells into a large solar panel. But like steve said the internal resistance of calc cells prohibit them from being useful in a panel.
6 years ago
You can link up several panels from garden lights or similar to get higher voltages or in parallel higher amps.
But in most cases it is not feasable as you need protection diodes for every panel and constantly increase the internal resistance of the panel.
For small projects it might be an option but right size panels are not that expensive anymore.
6 years ago
Calculator cells are not usable in arrays, they have too much internal resistance.