[RE-wrenches] Panel Fire

[Joel Davidson]

There are good people who make and teach other people how to make solar modules.

Richard Komp, co-author of the 1983 edition of The New Solar Electric Home, author of Practical Photovoltaics, President of the Maine Solar Energy Society, etc. See http://www.mainesolar.org/

Tor Allen, founder of the Rahus Institute, etc. See http://www.rahus.org/

and many more well-informed, good people around the world.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matt Lafferty 
  To: jryago at netscape.com ; 'RE-wrenches' 
  Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 7:41 PM
  Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Panel Fire


  Hi Jeff,

  Somebody should keep an eye on that neighbor of your friend. There have been any number of "DIY" publications and scams out there. Here's just one of many that basically lead to the same thing.... http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/hsh/1031018343.html  The C-list ad has a link to this place:  http://www.solar-panel-kit.net/  

  What this one is is a $50 book that tells you how to build your own windmill, PV module.... Yada Yada... This particular one is a guy named Michael Harvey. Anybody know him?  This is only 1 bright idea away from the guy who rented the shop next to your friend. As in, that guy bought this book thinking he was gonna "beat the utility". When he went to Ebay to buy his 1st batch of cells, he saw that they weren't all that scarce. He beat Travis C out on an auction and built a couple for himself. Then he had the bright idea! What if he did this for a bunch of people and sold them? 

  It's not necessarily that the guy with the bright idea was evil... Not necessarily. He could just happen to be a guy who isn't fully informed and thinks that there's just no reason for why everybody else charges so much and wants to do right by everybody. But, as the old saying goes, ignorance is no excuse for the law.

  I'm wondering if this is really the brainchild and "factory" for CitizenRE... Independent dealers all over the country buying surplus cells on Ebay... That would be a mahvelous concept... Until they burn, of course. That kinda puts a kink in the residential PPA model. But hey, if all you gotta do is buy $30 worth of slotted angle, 64 each 1/4-20 x 1" bolts & nuts, 20 lags, a tube of caulk, and some wire for BOS and the modules cost you $0.50 a watt and you don't bother faking a label on them, you probably don't have to even apply for a rebate. You could have your kids just slapping cells onto plexiglass and putting clear shrink-wrap over the front and sticking them onto 1-1/2" aluminum angle for a frame. 

  Just a thought.... 

  Matt Lafferty
  gilligan06 at gmail.com



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   Jeff Y wrote: 

  The other day a guy rented a warehouse near a business friend of mine and he went over to say Hi.  My friend later told me this guy told him he was planning to  "build"  solar pv modules that he was going to sell and install.  Although my friend was no engineer and didn't really know what to look for, when I described some of the typical equipment that is required he said it was mostly just work benches and hand tools.  

  I am betting your first reaction was the same as mine which was  - how could he expect to hand build solar module's to compete with commercially made and certified solar modules?

  Anyway, after reading this thread I am wondering is this more common than I thought?  Is this some kind of trend?  Are there others out there trying to build solar modules?  And finally, with all the different commercially made and certified solar modules out there in any size, wattage, and shape you want, how can they expect to be competitive, assuming their home-made modules don't catch fire?



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