Storing Cookies (See : http://ec.europa.eu/ipg/basics/legal/cookies/index_en.htm ) help us to bring you our services at overunity.com . If you use this website and our services you declare yourself okay with using cookies .More Infos here:
https://overunity.com/5553/privacy-policy/
If you do not agree with storing cookies, please LEAVE this website now. From the 25th of May 2018, every existing user has to accept the GDPR agreement at first login. If a user is unwilling to accept the GDPR, he should email us and request to erase his account. Many thanks for your understanding

User Menu

Custom Search

Author Topic: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?  (Read 8489 times)

Megaverse

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 57
Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« on: August 23, 2010, 10:06:11 PM »
I need the strongest possible solar cells (more than 15% if possible) on the market AND for tests i would need small calculator solar cells witch i have never found anywhere ?  :'(

the_big_m_in_ok

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2087
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2010, 10:47:07 PM »
I need the strongest possible solar cells (more than 15% if possible) on the market AND for tests i would need small calculator solar cells witch i have never found anywhere ?  :'(
triffid, a Member on this site, has had practical experience in this regard, since he posted on my I see an economic disaster coming... thread.  You might PM him.

Megaverse

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 57
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2010, 07:00:34 AM »
Quote
since he posted on my I see an economic disaster coming... thread.  You might PM him

Lol ok thanks ...Actually I have found a crazy place ...though there's alot of thieves there so you got to be real carefull and verify everything. And the minimum order depending on the company can be a real party crasher, lol. Anyway if interested it's here www.alibaba.com Check only for gold members and do a thorought background check first ok. see ya and thanks. ohh and there's a forum there also so ask around there's everyhting there to make about anything.

sm0ky2

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3948
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2010, 07:43:04 AM »
@ Megaverse

The calculator cells are what you need. They are highly efficient, and collect a large spectrum of light. to buy these cells, is it very expensive. especially when you get into the larger units.

so the way to do this is to find calculators, and take them apart.
   They are sometimes hard to collect, other times you find them by the dozens.
 but the best way is to find batches of "surplus" solar calculators.
that you can get either for free, or for dirt cheap, by the boxful.

have to search for them. you can go to garage sales and pick them up for 10 cents, i cant even tell you the hundreds of places i came across calculators, at one point i had my friends collecting them for me too.
basically a 6 month scavenger hunt, to construct an 4x8ft solid panel-unit framed on a sheet of plywood.

its a lot of maticulous work to assemble it, but you frame the plywood, and start in one corner,and you seal the edges of each cell as you put them in, like tiny bricks, with a silicone sealant.
have to make sure your holes are drilled accurately for the wires, and a little indention for all the tiny solderpoints, so the whole thing sits flat. it took two of us about 3 weeks to build it after we got all the calculators we needed.

but it worked better than any commercial cell you can get for under 18 grand.

and, with the exception of a few $ in wood, and some silicone.
it was basically free.

plus it had a few advantages, like being able to use it indoors,
or even in sunlight reflecting off the moon at night, if you catch it just right.

also theres a thing you can learn from the solar death-ray
about havesting "more than one sun" using mirrors.
of course you dont want to concentrate 241 suns on your solar panel, hheh






Megaverse

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 57
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2010, 01:53:19 PM »
Thanks Smokey2 it has been very insightful  :D
the calculators solar cells are called Amorphous silicon solar cells And Like i said earlier with alibaba i have found some here ..

http://www.alibaba.com/products/solar_cell/----------------10-615------------.html

I only need to do some background check but hey i can get around 1000 pannels for 0.06$ each. that's 60$ + shipping + possible invented on the spot taxes... ;D

Maybe there is also some plastic recuperator that could have a batch of them also ...this must be a little harder to get by though ?

Tenbatsu

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 38
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #5 on: August 27, 2010, 03:11:22 PM »
Smokey, how many watts can you generate on a typical sunny day with your solar panel?

fritznien

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 294
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #6 on: August 27, 2010, 05:57:57 PM »
 I see 200 watt panels for sale by the pallet load for as little as $1.68 a watt.
what are your costs?

sm0ky2

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3948
Re: Anyone knows a good solar cells supplier in north america ?
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2010, 07:06:38 AM »
The calc cells are usually 2 types, rectangle and square.
square is 2 rectangles approx., but they're not exact, so mixing and matching throws off yur math. you can use them in all sorts of ways, not just the industry standard " flat panel"

i may be off on these numbers, it was several years ago, and the guy i helped build it for hooked it up to a car for 3 days. took it off and decided that a solar car was unpheasable, because your panel would need to be 3x the size of the car, to be able to drive anywhere. but, we learned how to, and how NOT to build a solar panel out of a bunch of tiny pieces, and had a lot of fun in the process...

this is just off the top of my head, so if you are going to build a replica, i can talk to the guy and check on the exact numbers.

but its something like rows of 243 x 60 calculator cells, 14,580 total, just shy of 30,000 holes and solder indentions drilled into the wood, 9 tubes of silicone, 11,000 cusswords, half a dozen glass-cuts on your fingertips, and 6 hours of troubleshooting to figure out that row 187 was put connected to the parellel points instead of in the series, and was screwing with our voltage.

each cell was 2.25mw, they were the rectangle ones, not the squares. and we used the ones with the dark glass. that seems to make a difference in how much / what kind of light they can use. (iron tempered/doped or something i think its called)
total panel produced just over 300W in full sun. over 500 with the multisun set-up, until the sealant started melting from heat.
but it produced still a good ammount of electricity in even ambient light, indoors, moonlight, not even facing the sun in the daytime. which commercial "rooftop" panels won't do.


 i had guessed the weight to be about 75-80lbs, i dunno, moving it around was a 2 person job, because it was a full-sheet of ply. we took it up to the school, we used to do this thing, where everyone brings their projects up to the field next to the college to show them off, test balistics from potato guns, laser displays, robots, you'd be amazed what college kids come up with in their spare time, that you dont know about.....


i wonder if i could get it...
its probably just sitting in the jack*@'s garage.....
took us longer to make the panel than it did for him to give up on the solarcar and go back to plugging into the wall....

im far too lazy these days to build that again, i think i'd just call a BP supplier and tell them mail me one...

Wal-mart uses this cheap roll-out mat stuff.
you just plug them into one another like xmas trees.
the power per area isn't what it could be, but the cost when they cover the entire roof of a WalMart is like 60c/watt

i think companies should redesign this technology to fit our society... so that we can actually use it, instead of accomodating its use...

like i mean, if it were designed to go in places like... covered patios, awnings, windowblinds,
things that we use for WHAT purpose?
to BLOCK the sun.....

why not harvest it too??
theres also thermoelectric concepts that should be implemented into the cells also. to cool them down, and also to convert some of the "heatloss" into more electricity. maybe the solar industry just as a massive lack of engineering skills...
just a bunch of chemists and businessmen, noone that actually has a clue how to use this crap they sell us...

its all about making a "product", when it should be all about harvesting the sun.

Texas Instruments understands that. which is why they use the good cells.
   thats why i suggested using the calc cells. they're small enough that you can angle them, to fit over any type of surface, angled, curved, whatever.
make a kewl "solar-skin" for things. we had a football, an RC boat, a solar-cokecan, and a solar-powered steam-roller that blew smoke out like a fog machine...
gave a lot of thought into covering the entire surface of the car,
but we went with the more rigid one we could just strap to the top of the car and take it off any time.