So I grabbed a shattered solar panel from work today, with the intent of somehow reusing it. I was originally thinking of just breaking away all the shattered glass to reuse the individual solar cells, but I can't imagine it'd be easy to do without damaging either myself, or the cells.
The other obvious idea is to just reuse the panel in its current state, but i'd have to somehow resurface it in order to prevent moisture from getting in.
Tomorrow i'll post up the actual panel model and ratings (it's sitting in my car atm and will be hard to get to in the dark), and then hit it with a multimeter to see what sort of voltage the thing is still putting out. I know the fully sunlit rating is about 37v, so i'm sure that even in its shattered state it'll be putting out some useful amount of energy.
I guess i'm basically asking, is reusing the individual cells as simple as just removing them and soldering leads to the little conductors which connect them in series? And does anybody know what sort of epoxy or resin would work well for resurfacing the glass, or perhaps just have tips for doing it? I have access to at least 2 more at work, so I can experiment with taking one apart and just reusing another.
The other obvious idea is to just reuse the panel in its current state, but i'd have to somehow resurface it in order to prevent moisture from getting in.
Tomorrow i'll post up the actual panel model and ratings (it's sitting in my car atm and will be hard to get to in the dark), and then hit it with a multimeter to see what sort of voltage the thing is still putting out. I know the fully sunlit rating is about 37v, so i'm sure that even in its shattered state it'll be putting out some useful amount of energy.
I guess i'm basically asking, is reusing the individual cells as simple as just removing them and soldering leads to the little conductors which connect them in series? And does anybody know what sort of epoxy or resin would work well for resurfacing the glass, or perhaps just have tips for doing it? I have access to at least 2 more at work, so I can experiment with taking one apart and just reusing another.
