residential weekend course build your own solar pv panel

venue: Redfield Community, Bucks

On this build your own solar panel course you will be making a 5.5 watt USB solar charger for considerably less (under a 1/3 of the usual price). Teaching a method used in developing countries; you will solder, seal and frame your own pv panel.

Your pv panel will then be able to charge any usb device directly from the sun. We also make a voltage regulator to go with your panel which will protect anything you plug it into from damage.

The course is run by Norman Phipps who is writing an MSc Thesis on Handmade Solar and also heads up a Solar Cottage Industry charitable project in West Africa. This course is in directly supports the efforts in West Africa.

See a video of Norman's story here

You will make your pv panel using broken or reject solar cells. The price of the course includes £40 for materials and use of equipment. You are free to take your panel home following the course. The design you will be making on this course is the same design Norman will be using in Tanzania in September 2012.

The course will consist of:

• Introduction to handmade solar PV

• Cutting broken solar cells

• Introduction to basic soldering

• Soldering solar cells

• Encapsulation (a unique method using small amounts of silicon)

• Framing and testing

• Application suggestions (covered on a 1 to 1 basis throughout the weekend)

This is a highly practical, hands-on course open to everyone. A steady hand and good co-ordination is all that is required.  You will leave with a solar panel approximately the size of two A4 sheets of paper (the time constraints over the weekend have dictated the size).

You will be provided with a simple instruction booklet and support will be available for those wishing to scale up production following the course. Some materials may be available to buy over the weekend, or you will be pointed in the right direction to source materials within budget.

This workshop covers the hand manufacturing process of solar (PV), it is not the theory of solar (PV) or installation of Solar (PV). You will probably “learn by doing” some elements of solar (PV) but the course should be considered a “how to build” rather than “how it works”. During the workshop we will discuss examples about how and where you could use your panel. Every effort will be made to address individual questions over the weekend.

Handmade panels are only to be used for battery charging or to directly power equipment (pump, fan etc). Handmade solar panels are not permitted to be connected to the grid in the UK.

dates: see 'book online' below

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