Any one dable in solar panels?????????

Well I got a question about some solar panels, I would like to know if there is some one, or some one that knows some one that deals in Solar Panels. I will have roughly 500 parking substations that have solar panels on there top. They are about 12 inches wide by about 15-18 inches long they have a aluminum casing and were used to power these parking meter stations. I would like to avoid the e-bay thing with these if possible, any one that could share some input or is a buyer of this type of material. Any thoughts or comments? Thanks 1956 Do not have any pictures yet.

Energy output of solar panels degrades over time. It would be good to see how old they are, and what kind of generating capacity they have left.

They are about six years old, and I believe 17 watts? If that makes sence.

Yeah, that makes sense. That's not too old. I think the average panel loses 0.5% output per year, so they should be all good. There are different types, but I don't think any degrade faster than 1% a year. If you caught me at a better time, I'd make an offer on them as I had been looking into getting some panels. BUUUT my wedding is next month so my extra spending money is non-existent

I think they should be an easy sell locally to someone that wants solar panels. They would have to be joined together to produce anything worthwhile. How easily can these be attached together if they even can? If I had to sell them individually, I'd price them at $25-30 ea..big discounts for large amounts.

pm me when you know for sure how many you have, include make and model and specs please. all the info should be on a label on the back.

Thank you for your interest, I will have them back in my yard towards the end of next week I will get in touch with you then.

Just wanted to put this tread back up again it was taken down pretty quick, hopping for some additional information or comments, thanks.

Hmmmm small ones. Should be copper or aluminum and brass . Plastic ,metal and wire. Maybe more. It's been a while. Open a test panel. Take pictures.

1956,

I did a quick google search for "surplus solar panels" and got a zillion hits. That being said, I looked at a few of the first page of sites that came up. The sites listed some of the people who sell used solar panels. A couple of names came up, mentioned across several different sites. Oasis Montana Inc and American Science and Surplus were two I noticed listed in more than one place.

So there might be a few places around that resell this stuff to experimenters and treehugger types. If you end up with several hundred solar panels that you are lucky enough to get undamaged, a call to some of these guys might prove very beneficial to you.

Hope this helps,

Jon.

It's easier to understand solar cells if you think of them like batteries. Solar panels are made of cells just like batteries. Also just like batteries solar cells can be connected in series and in parallel. Just like with batteries connecting them in series increase the voltage, and connecting them in parallel increase the current. Also just like batteries one bad cell can be a serious problem.

The most importing information for a potential buyer is the maximum watts a panel can produce and it's voltage. Other things buyers might be interested in would be the condition, how old they are , the manufacture, their dimensions, their weight and weather they are poly-crystalline or Mono-crystalline (you can tell this just by looking at them. Poly-crystalline is the one on the left).


I'm not a big fan of solar really. I think it's partial responsible for the high electric costs here in California. Still I would buy some panels if I could get them cheap enough.
For one thing utilities here are required to law to buy electricity from people with solar panels for the same price the would sell the electricity to them. This means that a person can reduce there electric bill to zero while still receiving all the benefits of using the electric grid basically pushing all the costs onto other costumers. That's not really something I want to do, but still it's like musical chairs you don't want to be the last person left standing.

Even in states which don't have the rule forcing utility to buy the electricity there are still reason why someone might want some solar panels if they could get them at the right price. Imagine if you could buy 500 watts of 12 volt solar panels for ten cents a watt. You can then hook them up in parallel to a cheap $100 12 volt inverted. That's a pretty sweet setup for only $150 bucks. Imagine taking that camping or maybe even using it in place of a small generator to save on gas.

If they are in good working order I'm sure you can find someone to buy them. Probably for more then ten cent a watt. The problem is finding that someone. E-Bay seems like the obvious place, but if you don't want to do that then maybe craigslist or other local classified. Here are some links that might help you.

Here is a place you can use to sell your solar panels online for free.
Used Solar electric Equipment

Here is some things about used panels that you might want to be aware of.
Used Solar Panels | Otherpower

Here is a list of the ten best solar panel forums.
10 Best Solar Power Forums | DIY Solar Power Systems

Hope some of this helps.