Off-Grid 101

In this article I am going to describe how to build a photo voltaic solar panel for a fraction of the price you would pay a manufacturer. I’ll show you how inexpensive materials and common tools can be used to make panels that rival commercial products in power production, but blow them away on price.

Several years ago I bought a remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. I found a great piece of land, but it’s so remote that there is no electricity. That’s definitely a good thing- no electricity equals no light pollution. But it would be nice to have at least a little power, since so much of life in the 21st century is dependent on it.

Initially I built a wind turbine. And it works great… when the wind blows. It was soon clear however that I needed not only more power but more dependable power.

I do get well over 300 sunny days a year on the property though, so solar power seemed like the obvious choice to supplement the turbine. My problem was cost –as I say, I’m an astronomer and the price of solar panels is astronomical. So I decided to try my hand at building my own.

Really a solar panel is just a box that holds an array of solar cells. Solar cells are the things that do the actual work of turning sunlight into electricity. Sorry to any one who thought I was going to tell them how to make their own cells. As far as I know it is impossible without complex production facilities.

Seconds from e bay
However it takes a lot of cells to make a useful amount of power, and being largely glass, they are very fragile. That’s why individual cells are assembled into protective panels. It doesn’t sound too complicated. I was convinced I could do it myself.  It was clear however that the main stumbling block to building solar panels is acquiring solar cells at a reasonable price. But once I realised that I could use blemished and factory-second solar cells to build my panels and that they were available on e bay , I got down to work.

I started by buying a couple of bricks of 3 X 6 mono-crystalline solar cells on Ebay   It takes a total of 36 of these type solar cells wired in series to make a panel. Each cell produces about 1/2 Volt. 36 in series would give about 18 volts  which would be B good for charging 12 volt batteries. (Yes, you really need that high a voltage to effectively charge 12 Volt batteries).

This type of solar cell is as thin as paper and as brittle and fragile as glass. They are …