They’re still big-time expensive, but now homeowners have the technology, plans than knowledge to build and install their own photovoltaic solar panels. It can be completed for a mere fraction of the cost. It sounds complicated, but building solar panels are very simple in practice. Once more, it can be done using tools and materials purchased at your local home improvement center.

Anyone that commits the time and effort can do it regardless of their skill sets. DIY solar power enthusiasts are a community of sorts and help each other through forums on the Internet as well as in other ways. Hobbyists and homeowners alike are finding that it can be quite rewarding to go green.

Thousands and thousands of dollars will be saved on electricity. Another benefit is that the home’s value goes up. Improved technologies make building and installing solar power systems rather easy. Solar cells, mounts and batteries are the components. Making solar cells is the first step of the process.

The individual cells then work in tandem to turn the sun’s rays into electricity. Wiring themselves together when they’re completed forms the panel. It is the cells working in tandem that creates a functioning panel. The process produces a photovoltaic solar panel. Photovoltaic is the word used to describe when light is turned into electricity. The final step is to install it.

Electricity can be either stored for later use, sold to the utility company or of course, used by the homeowner. May be using the word sold is a bit misleading. What happens is that the house is wired to the electrical grid and the homeowner sends their excess electricity to the utility company.

The homeowner gets credits that are used to offset the cost of his or her electric bill. To be able to generate enough electricity where none is needed from the utility company is known as going off the grid. Sounds pretty appealing doesn’t it? That’s because it is. DIY Solar Power saves quite a bit of money and those absolutely no damage to the environment.

But before even those basic steps, it is more important to have a clear picture of what your solar panel is going to end up looking like and where you are going to use it. There are many things you can do when you build a solar panel, you can build a small one for charging up re-chargeable batteries, or you can build larger 200, 300 or 400 watt panels to run home appliances and store excess electricity in a battery bank, or you can build 1000 watt panels and start a little business feeding electricity back to the grid.

Obviously, the main difference between building a 100 watt panel and a 1000 watt panel is the number of solar cells you need and the time to build it. The main reason for many people wanting to make their own solar electricity is that they can save on the cost of having to actually by them because they are very expensive.

Now you know how large you solar panel is going to be, we now have to find a ready source of solar cells. Now you don’t want to pay a lot of money for them. Auction sites can be a good place to find low cost solar cells and other stuff, you have to do your due diligence and check out the seller thoroughly, making sure you don’t get ripped off. So what if you can’t find what you need on ebay and other auction sites, what do you do next?

A cheap or even a free source of solar cells is from local businesses who either manufacture products or utilize solar cells on a day to day basis. You want to develop a relationship with these companies so that they call you when they have any damaged cells they want to get rid of. One of the major users of solar cells are the road and traffic signs, often you see them on the side of the road, and often they will have the company’s contact details on them. Traffic signs often get broken by manhandling or cars driving into them.

They don’t fix the solar panel if it is broken or chipped, they will fit a new one and chuck the old one in the skip. The good news is that it is normally very easy to repair a chipped or damaged solar cell, if you know how to build a solar panel, you can easily repair a solar cell.

The biggest challenge for most “solar panel builders” is finding a reliable, low cost source of solar cells so pick your telephone directory and start looking for those companies now.

Remeber what I said earlier, know what outcome you want to end up with, have a clear picture even sketch it out on a piece of paper. From my experience, if you don’t have this, you build an odd panel for this and an odd panel for that. You will make life very hard for yourself and will probably be disappointed. Stick a picture on the wall and go and build it.

Different Types of Solar Panels

• Thin Film Solar Panels – copper indium diselenide
• Thin Film Solar Panels – cadmium telluride
• Polycrystalline Solar Panels – String Ribbon Silicon