Hey all. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve recently become very interested in trying to green up my life. I’d love to do it in a way that will take a chunk out of my other expenses, so I’ve been looking at installing solar panels on my house. The problem has been that they’re far too expensive Most of the commercial installers want nearly $20,000 for an 8-panel package. That’s really outside of what my income will allow.

So the purpose of this post is that I think I’ve found a solution. A friend mentioned that it’s possible to build your own solar panal, using relatively cheap materials. He estimated that you could build one for around $100, and that it doesn’t take any special knowledge. I started looking around the web, and I’m getting confident that it’s possible.

The key component, solar cells, are available from a variety of sources online. The ones I’ve found start at around $70. The other parts of the solar panel (wood, paint, wire, etc.) are really cheap, and available from any hardware store. Currently I’m looking for a good instruction manual that will walk me through the process of building and mounting solar panals on my own.

EDIT: The Maine State Government and the Federal Government both offer tax discounts for building renewable energy systems on residential property. I’m going to see if I can find some more information to post here. I’ve also heard that if you produce more energy than you use, the power company will buy the extra from you. That would be great!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,