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Building Your Own Solar Panel In the Garage

Posted by timothy on from the prices-have-edge-cases-too dept.

jeroen8 writes "A Dutch guy was able to build his own solar panel in his garage using materials that were a third as expensive as the mass produced solar panels currently available on the European market. He bought his solar cells on eBay and used them to create his own panel. His output price is only 1.20 Euro per Watt Peak (Wp). This makes you wonder if we are paying too much for mass-produced solar panels, which should, in theory, be a lot less expensive than something you create in your garage."

12 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Are these _new_ panels? by TheLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they aren't brand new the reason why it's cheaper is because someone else has paid for much of it.

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    1. Re:Are these _new_ panels? by Mr+Z · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I came here to say something along these lines. Just because someone got a good deal on eBay and so his project ended up being cheaper than a mass produced panel doesn't mean that one can mass produce panels cheaply just by buying everything on eBay to solder in your garage.

      Either this guy got stuff that "fell off the back of a truck," or got lucky and paid less than what they were worth to a distressed seller. There's no good reason to believe that his experience is reproducible on any large scale. There was no innovative manufacturing process here.

      Now, if he'd figured out how to make the actual cells in his garage for cheaper than we can in a proper fab, that'd be a big breakthrough, particularly if he didn't run afoul of the local environmental authorities while doing so. Alas, making solar cells generally involves such fun things as arsenic or selenium and such, not to mention industrial solvents for etching, and those aren't the friendliest chemicals to play with.

      --Joe

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  2. Once again... by ddrueding80 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Only cheaper if your time is worth nothing. Still, very cool. But not particularly novel or groundbreaking.

    1. Re:Once again... by jacquesm · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The folks at http://fieldlines.com/ have been doing this for years. The bigger problems are the sealing of the cells and the fact that since these are most likely rejects the cells might nog give their rated power.

      The article summary is dead wrong in suggesting that this is somehow proof that solar cells could be produced cheaper, these cells have probably been hijacked on the way to the recycler.

      'making' a solar panel in your garage does not start off with buying solar cells and hooking them up, it starts with sand.

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    2. Re:Once again... by Ironsides · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think I've got another reason why these cells are so 'cheap'. He's extracting 15.5w with all of those panels combined. Lets say that is 1/4 meter^2, he gets 62w per meter^2. The expensive solar panels they compare it to get 240w per meter^2 (20% efficiency). Power density costs money.

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  3. The solar cells _were_ mass produced. by fractoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The main costs in solar array manufacturing are manpower, raw structural materials, and the solar cells. Remember that the prices for single solar cells are fairly constant, given that they're mass produced already. Same for the structural materials. That leaves (Cells + Materials) on the hobbyist's side and (Cells + Materials + Labour) on the mass production side. It's not surprising that a hobbyist can construct a panel for a competitive price if he doesn't count his time as a cost.

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  4. Not Proof New Cells Are Overpriced by darkmeridian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The author bought damaged solar cells from eBay, selected the good ones, then soldered those together. Then he jury-rigged his own waterproof casing and electrical connections. Used goods are cheaper but that does not mean new ones are over-priced.

    Let us know how long his cells last outside before insinuating all the solar cell producers in the world are selling overpriced gear.

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    A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
  5. Paying one third of retail for parts is typical... by NixieBunny · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...but you've only paid for the parts, not the labor or the engineering or the rent etc.

    The point that the packaging of solar panels is expensive is not lost on me. There's a local firm (Tucson) making thin-film cells which ought to be packaged as plastic-laminated roof shingles to keep the final cost down.

    But I admire his fortitude in building a panel. I have a stack of cells in my workshop that I don't see how I'll ever turn into a panel, since it requires lots of glass and care and sticky tape.

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    The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
  6. Cells are NEW but also STOLEN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am fairly (95%) certain that these Cells have been stolen, probably by a person working at a solar cell manufacturing plant.
    Getting an 'uncounted' batch of 'mixed quality' just screams 'stolen'.. and then the price itself is also cheaper then the raw manufacturing

    But they are 'new', extracting Cells from used panels is not cost effective as commercial panels are laminated and string soldered which is very hard to take apart without breaking most of the cells.

    Also, when you buy good quality Solar Panels you usually get around 25 years of warranty and the knowledge that they have been throughly safety tested (and designed) so that they won't burn down your house when one cell short circuits or your getting a bit more sun then imagined. I would think that's worth something by itself.

    1. Re:Cells are NEW but also STOLEN by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But in both those cases they're second hand, rejects, or both. So the hysterical "OMG we're being ripped off 3x" in the summary is bullshit.

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      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    2. Re:Cells are NEW but also STOLEN by Zeromous · · Score: 5, Insightful

      an electrical spark is pretty useless for starting a fire without ample combustible gas, or surface area.

      I'd be more concerned about my circuit working than catching fire in such a case.

      This is not to say one shouldn't be careful. But this burning down the house business is a quite an exaggeration. You'd have to have a helluva a short!

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  7. Not a fair comparison by pz · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The summary is bad.

    1. He bought damaged solar cells from a one-time vendor. There isn't a supply of them for anyone to make. They might have been stolen, they might have been a shipping write-off, whatever. They aren't new solar cells.

    2. He scrounged materials, like glass, for free. Manufacturers can't do that. Most people don't have that opportunity.

    3. He used wire that he "happened to have" (quoting the article). He bought it at some point, or found it. Again, not something you or I could normally do.

    And so forth. Comparing the cost of doing something this way to buying a new cell is invalid and misleading. The summary is bad. And the Slashdot editors are responsible for validating and endorsing the summary, suggesting that they were asleep at the wheel.

    Sheesh, can't we get some decent editing here? Has the entire field of news reporting gone to the dogs?

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