Solar Panel Construction: A Hands-On Approach

Instructions that are readily available for constructing solar panels often lead one to believe it is much more difficult than it really is.

The process is actually *easier* than you think - and if you do it properly, solar panel construction is quite straightforward.

Here's a quick overview of the entire process, just to prove to you how easy it is:

1. Firstly, you have to make it clear in your mind that whether you are at all interested to create a solar panel of your own because they are easily obtainable from your neighbors or from hardware shops or even from the highway patrol. Therefore, make sure that you actually need to create your own solar panels first.

2. However, if you insist on making them by yourself anyway, here's the crash course:

You might be very enthusiastic about completely eliminating your utility bills, but I would not attempt this as your first project.

Start small, and take small steps until you move up to larger projects. Start with a 50-cell panel first (relatively small) and see how that goes - and whether or not you really want to build more solar panels by yourself.

Lets get started with your first solar panel project:

At first, collect the required parts like 40 or 50 solar cells from eBay, a few pieces of plywood (cut according to the required length and breadth), tabbing wire, solder and a rosin flux pen.

Next, place the solar cells face-down in series, and apply a tiny amount of solder on every tab.

After that, you are required to wire these cells together in such a way that if wire passes from the back of one cell the other end of the wire should pass to the front of another cell. In this manner you need to connect all the cells.

Then, connect each row of solar cells together in parallel form, and attach the cells to the wood using silicone.

And in the end, at the bottom of the plywood, drill holes to pass the positive and negative wires from the solar cells. These wires are then to be connected to the inverter at first and then to the power box on your house.

If you're uncertain about how to connect everything at the end, call the electrician or the power company for assistance - better safe than sorry.

This is a very quick overview, but you get the basic idea from this article. Making your own solar panels is not difficult; the most tedious part of this whole process is wiring the solar cells together, and youll get better at it each time you do it.

About the Author

Brian Bradley is the Senior Author at DIY Clean Energy, the web's leading resource on going green, where he uses his own success going off the grid to teach others solar panel construction and how to build your own solar panel.