If you have damaged or broken some of your solar cells or you are trying to build a solar panel on a budget, you may want to consider using broken cells as a part of your panel.
Despite popular belief, although solar cells themselves are extremely fragile and break with the slightest bump or nick, they do still produce the majority of their rated voltage even when they are slightly damaged. The power output of the cell will be affected depending on how much of the cell is damaged although it is not usually more than 10-20% of the cell that is damaged.
As long as the tabs and most of the cell is still in tact, the cell can usually still be used in a panel. Try to take a voltage measurement across the cell tabs with the cells exposed to full sunlight, if the cells are not too badly damaged, they should still produce 85-100% of the rated voltage.
Unfortunately, without the cells connected to a load, it is very difficult to determine how much of the cell’s power has been lost due to the break or crack. It is however ok to assume that the cell’s power output will be reduced by a similar percentage to the area that has been broken off.
The video below demonstrates how a broken cell still produces a comparable voltage to a new cell. The output voltage of both cells is a bit lower than the rated voltage as the measurement was done indoors.
So if the surface area of your solar panel is not a major consideration and you have cheap access to a number of broken solar cells then it may be worth your while to build your next solar panel using broken solar cells.
Have you used broken solar cells to build a solar panel? Let us know your tips and tricks in the comments section below.