I found an interesting article on building a solar panel from blemished solar panels off eBay. I would love to build the panel and incorporate it into something like this commercial product. And it doesn’t sound like it would be too expensive.
I’m not looking to tie this in to the grid. It wouldn’t generate enough electricity to warrant the increased costs. And there are a number of other applications where this would be cool: camping, stargazing, and emergency power. Surely something like the commercial system can be built for less than $1400.
But what I’m struggling with is a parts list and a recommendation of how to wire it all up. So I’ve started searching for articles on the net which explain how this can work and recommend some parts and a basic block diagram.
Once built, I’d like to encase the batteries in a Rubbermade tote to be portable. I’d also need to find a way to protect the solar panels for transport. Fun stuff to think about, but first I think building a smaller version is in order.
It would be wonderful if Make Magazine devoted an entire issue to alt. energy concepts. I know they take article submissions from readers, so I’ll have to document my project as I work on it for possible publication. Who knows…