How to Make Your Own Solar Panels

By Ryan K Lim
Having your own solar panels can be quite beneficial since you can get free unlimited supply of energy from sunlight. Nowadays, there are many readymade packages readily available at a cost ranging around $2000 to $3000. If you are looking for a cheaper solution, you might want to make your own solar panels. It is cheaper and it is not as difficult as you may think. The materials that you need will cost less than $500.
1. The Necessary Component
To build your own solar panels there are several components you need to prepare first, those components are: sheet of copper, an electric stove, two alligator clip leads, a micro-meter, sand paper, and sheet metal shears, table salt, tap water. All of these components will be used to build solar cells.
2. The Importance Of Solar Cells
Solar cells are a crucial part since it converts solar energy into electric energy. Without it, no sunlight that can be gathered through your solar cells.
3. Build Your Own Solar Panels
After collecting all the components, you must clean the copper sheet carefully to avoid any remaining traces of sulphide. Then cut a piece of copper sheet in accordance with the size of your electric stove. Make sure the size is right.
Heat the copper sheet on burner, after that cool the copper sheet slowly. During the end of this process you will get a copper sheet in form of layer with soft red cuprous oxide.
During the last step you will have two copper sheets, one with red cuprous oxide, and the other which is a clean free copper sheet. The red cuprous oxide must be connected to the negative terminal, while the clean one must be connected with the positive terminal.
Place the saltwater at the bottom of the plates as the last step, and you are done, you have made your own solar panels.
There are several guides online that provides step by step instructions on how to assemble together your own solar panels. It may not look nice than commercial readymade packages but it is cheaper and it works just as well.
If you want to learn how to generate your own solar power yourself, check out Michael Harvey Earth4Energy guide. Check out my Earth4Energy review here.