The Oil Drum

264 comments on DrumBeat: May 30, 2008

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Dr Moody on May 30, 2008 - 10:39am

Simply buy groups of individual cells on ebay and build the panel yourself, it's not rocket science. A simple panel, and charge controller/inverter design can be found here http://www.mdpub.com/SolarPanel/index.html but you may want to build yours to last. I believe most of the cells come from factory seconds or damaged panels. If you have the time it's well worth it. Enjoy.

Feel free to email me steven.j.moody[at]gmail.com if you need more info.

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Durandal on May 30, 2008 - 10:53am

If you were to have the cells seperated enough, you could use fresnel lenses to increase the output per cell, although you would then need to add a heat-sink to the back of the cell to avoid frying it. An example of such a thing I found was at:
http://www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au/

You could also use mirrors to amplify the output as well, for less of an effect...

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Dr Moody on May 30, 2008 - 11:02am

Indeed. I've also started scraping old rear projection tv's for their Fresnel lens. Great for cooking and potentially a valuable barter item in the next 15-30 years. Typically you can pick up a 50" lens for $10-$40.