How To Build Solar Panels

photovoltaic solar panels

As mentioned before, Canadians are funny. From a point of view of a guy that has grown in a society where everybody is trying to screw everybody, their approach to solar energy panels is ridiculously generous.

Way too advanced for me (At least I know that home solar panels work!)

Under the microFIT program of the Ontario Power Authority, homes that generates 10 kW or less through a rooftop solar photovoltaic panel will be paid up to $.80 per kW of solar energy produced.

That means the Canadian government is paying you to go Green!

From the OPA website:

If you are a homeowner, farmer or small business owner, you have the opportunity to develop a very small or “micro” renewable electricity generation project (10 kilowatts or less in size) on your property. Under the microFIT Program, you will be paid a guaranteed price for all the electricity your project produces for at least 20 years.

A 20-year Government contract that pays you to produce cheap solar energy sounds like an unbelievable program. Again, way too advanced for me

But the benefits dont stop there:

According to the microFIT program rules, you can lease an area of your property to a Solar Energy Developer and get paid for their results. The program says that as long as the leasee qualifies as a certified installer, the contract is valid – the company would receive the payments from microFIT and you’d receive lease payments (almost like rent).

That means you dont have to invest a single dime to install solar panels home. You get somebody else to do it, they pay your for the usage of your land, and they make money with the government contract.

Ah… the beauty of a developed, civilized society…!

While we dont get to that point the US, or if you’d rather build your own solar panel in Canada, we have the most complete DIY guide available:

download the step-by-step tutorial here now

Share

A homemade solar panel current of 3amps

Here I am testing the current capacity of the solar panel, again in bright winter sunlight. My meter says 3.05 Amps short circuit current. That is right about what the cells are rated for. So the panel is working very well.

The current recessive economy and the unreliable rise-and-fall of oil prices and oil reserves make it really tough to picture what our future energy supply will look like.

But on a positive note it makes us investigate for alternative energy sources – like wind or solar power. Building your own solar panels has become a popular solution amongst families trying to save money on their power bills.

It has a great level of common sense when you think about it: the sun is going to shine (whether you pay your bill or not) for about 5 billion more years – why not take advantage of it?

Well, on my last post I showed how building your solar power system is much like paying a mortgage instead of “renting” energy from the power company. I’ve also showed you how the cost of solar energy is dropping with new technologies, so your investment is really not that great in comparison to the benefits.

Here’s what a friend of mine spent building his own panel:

Part – Origin – Cost

• Solar Cells – Ebay – $74.00*
• Misc. Lumber – Homecenter Store –  $20.62
• Plexiglass – Scrap Pile – $0.00
• Screws & Misc. – Hardware Already on hand – $0.00
• Silicone Caulk – Homecenter Store – $3.95
• Wire  - Already on hand – $0.00
• Diode – Ebay – $0.20±
• Jones Plug – Newark Electronics – $6.08
• Paint – Already on hand –  $0.00

Total $104.85

Not bad, huh?

But the thing is – if you really want a complete do-it-yourself solar panel guide – reading stuff off the internet is not going to help too much.

Check out this step-by-step tutorial that has both books and videos detailing each part of the process:

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

Related Solar Power articles you may also like

• Solar Website Reenergizes Green Movement with New Blog (prweb.com)
• Alternative Energy Advocate Creates Web site to Promote Affordable Green Living (prweb.com)

Share

New carbon nanotubes may increase solar panel efficiency considerably

Okay, you may be saying what on earth does that have to do with my homemade solar panel project?

Well, first, understand what the headline really meant:

Boston College researchers announced this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters that they have developed a solar panel that can capture so-called hot electrons.

Hot electrons are, as their name suggests, hot. They possess a great amount of kinetic energy, though, making them desirable for capture in electricity generation. But they typically shed heat quickly and are effectively lost.

What this means is that their new technology actually traps more of solar energy than the current panels and will potentially generate more solar power. But there’s a catch, of course:

The new cells are less than 30 nanometers thick, compromising their potential efficiency. The problem with really thin cells is that current wires are thicker than this is and it may lead to big energy losses. The solution would be more-efficient light-trapping nanowires.

There are several studies working on new nano conductors for thinner solar panels, and the good news is that they’ll also be cheaper.

Once they’re released and ready for widespread usage, expect a surge in the demand – so start your project now and then replace your cells for the newer ones:

click here for the official step-by-step guide

Share

Cost of home solar panels will drop over 50% with new materials

So as I was reading some of the news about solar power, I came across an excellent article by the CALFinder, a solar panel contractor, that says, in sum:

Solar Power Makes Financial Sense

Is that straightforward or what? To explain their argument, they talk of solar energy as a mortgage and utilities as renting.

In a really effective analogy, they compare the cost of home solar panels as the cost of buying your own house versus paying “rent” to the power company; following this logic, you’d have payed for your energy freedom many times over if you invest in the switch now.

you can read the full article here

And, to make it all even more worthwhile, the cost of solar panels have dropped over 50%, according to Dr. David Lee, CEO of BioSolar, a technology company that produces bio-based materials from renewable plant sources.

“Solar is widely hailed as the economic and environmental panacea for a greener future, but if the industry continues growing exponentially without planning ahead, it risks repeating the mistakes made by the microelectronics industry – now dealing with an ongoing legacy of toxic electronic waste,” said Lee. “Solar is a renewable source of energy, but the upstream process of manufacturing solar panels is petroleum-dependant and involves a surprising number of toxic chemicals. With photovoltaic (PV) solar on track to reach grid party over the next several years, now is the time for the PV industry to get serious about life-cycles of all the materials that go into PV panels, starting from mining to manufacturing to recycling to disposal.”

The fact that solar panels are made from Petroleum-based resin is one not widely discussed (maybe because it goes against the whole green energy propaganda behind solar power) but thanks to Dr. Lee’s research, it may now go mainstream.

BioSolar is developing plant-based polymers to finally replace the current disposal hazard of petroleum-based solar panels – which will disassociate the cost of those polymers to the (high) cost of crude oil. This new polymer can reduce costs by over 50%, says Dr. Lee.

You can read the entire article here.

The BioSolar research is promising, but it will take a few years to be available  - in the meantime, you can build your own solar panel:

Click here to get the most comprehensive step-by-step guide available.

Related solar power articles you may also like:

• Obama Putting $3.4B Into ‘Smart’ Grid (time.com)
• Enbridge invests in solar (thestar.com)

Share

Could it really be this simple?

It’s been a while since I’ve last used my tools to build one of those IKEA wonders and now I wonder if I have what it takes to build me one those nice home-use solar panels.

Apparently, building a solar panel for home use is a big trend right now – My guess is that guys have now found a weekend project that the wives cant complain about and might actually save them money on utilities.

With that in mind, gather your power tools and watch this DIY solar panel video

Robert is a college student with a great knack for video editing (lol). Actually, he’s a great engineer, and his 14-part video series shows very detailed instructions on how to build a solar panel right in your backyard.

The thing about this video is that

• You may not have internet on your backyard shed
• Robert does not offer any technical support ;(

Luckily, for those that are interested in building a solar panel in your backyard, we’ve got a complete step-by-step guide with videos and written instructions that you can take to your shed or even watch in any TV.

Click here to check out the take-home guide

Related articles by Zemanta

• Going Off the Grid (iflizwerequeen.com)
• Price Of Solar Panels Drop (huffingtonpost.com)
• Solar Skin: Inflatable good-looking solar panels to speed up solar deployments (ubergizmo.com)

Share

Build a Solar panel that you can install quickly

It sure is good to have you here – it means that you’re at least considering a more ecofriendly alternative to electricity.

Heck, you may not even care for nature, you just want to save money by tapping into a source of energy that has been available for over 5 billion years – so let the Sun Shine In…!

This blog you talk about how to build solar panels, of course – for home, business, farm, whatever. But we’ll also talk about solar power, applications, disadvantages, and much more…

Stay tuned (I recommend subscribing to our RSS feed) I’ve got tons of information lined up your way!

Solar power is the future – and making the power company send YOU a check feels just too good.

I’ll see you soon.

Share

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Share