If you have basic DIY skills, you should be able to make your own homemade solar panels.

Firstly, you should look for some damaged solar cells. eBay is a good first port of call for cheap, blemished solar panels. Solar cells tend to be about as thin as paper and are incredibly brittle and fragile therefore handle them with great care!

You now need to build a frame for your home made solar cells. You can build this from MDF, peg-board or any other cheap wood you have lying around. You basically just need to create a ‘picture frame’ for the solar cells however ensure that the edges which hold the cells in lie approximately at the same height as the solar cell itself otherwise the edges will cast a shadow and therefore make your DIY solar panel less effective.

Lay the cells out upside-down so that you can solder them together. We suggest you will need around 18 – 32 cells, however it depends how big you want your solar panel to be and also how many cells you can get your hands on in the first place! The solar panels should be soldered together in series. If you have multiple panels, they will also need to be connected in series. As mentioned above, the solar cells are incredibly fragile so use a really light touch when soldering them together. If you push too hard on them, you will break them.

Each solar panel in your system will need a blocking diode in series to stop the solar panel from discharging your batteries at night or when it is an overcast day, so add a polarizing two-pin jones plug to the end of each of the solar panel’s wires.

And there you have it – your own, home-made solar panel!

Not convinced this is the project for you? View our solar panels for sale.
Read about the Chinese inventor and his beer bottle solar panel.
Plus read all about solar cell paint.

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