<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt"><br>Thank you for getting back right away; it is a great honor to finally see these broken modules adopted into a good home. <br><br>Not at all looking for monetary compensation- I saved these panels because they were free and it was predicted to one day find a charitable outlet to plug them into (pun intended) So they were saved with this in mind - which is much better than if they would go to a junk yard or melted down- either way is frivolous- should not throw out something that works just because its a little ugly.<br><br>However I am paying rent to store them so the sooner we can move them; you'll help me out so please act quickly. <br><br> - Maybe if we can contact someone willing to store them closer since it would a long haul to Boston?- but obviously the problem is they neerad a sophisticated home - its like
trying to donate a space ship and no one has a pilots license. Im glad and honored that you wind ll take the torch so to speak on this one. And FYI - Feel free, I'm an EE and been a working solar engineer for 8 years now and you can always ask for my help gratis- if you google my name I do have a patents pending in solar control algorithms for constructing electronics. My big concern is typically a good MPPT Charge Control is about $500 each- I see we have a low cost PWM driven on an arduino - it would be awesome if we can build hat to a higher capacity - these panels can go as high at 46V some of them and have ratings of 235Watts - which is likely to blow out the caps in your small controller. It would be great to build an inexpensive charge controller that can handle the power- and I would love a sample for my own lab. <font face="Arial" size="2"><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span
style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></b><span><span><span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></span><b><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br><br>Also (Again Not at all looking for monetary compensation)- would be honored to get a trade of one of those sweet pedal power devices that they were using in Manhattan? I would love to run some tests on it with some of my equipment in my lab. <br><br>As far as a proper refurbishment... Here is my advice/report --- <br><br>My first experiment was trying to use an automotive dent pulling machine to pull the broken glass - it ripped the cells right off.<br><br>Second experiment - after cutting some cells with a diamond saw, we tried boiling them to loosen the encapsulation glue holding the cells - problem is it really needs about 1200 degree to melt that glue - its designed for high temp due to solar radiation. Boiling did
nothing. The valuable lesson we did get from it was to be able to microscope scan the back of some cells to check for micro-fractures - indeed the shattering of the glass does cause a ripple of expansion/explosive force during the accident(s) that causes fractures to the cells under the glass since they are glued to the glass.<br><br>Third experiement- Based on results hypothesized that the micro fractures would cause outputs near VOC due to potential open circuits created by the fractures. During test the MPPT was OK and it was discovered that the fingers and tabs were effective at overcoming the opening of the circuit - the panels do work (although less for wear)<br><br>So while I have not tried resealing them by a high temp clear varnish I theorize this is a low cost solution, the problem is water gets in between the glass fractures/ clevages when module is baked in the sun hypothesis the water would vaporize and possibly lead
to de-lamination and if that happens the panel is really dead. <br><br> - or the better idea would be to built an enclosed glass box all the way around and encapsulate the whole module with mineral oil - since its both a high dieletric strength and a thermal dissipator - in theory since these cells are new if we can drop about 10-20 degrees operation temp, the panels may be abwhen the module le to produce more power than when they were new!!! - which would be a cool experiment -to prove that you can make a panel reclaimed from a landfill produce more power than one in the factory- to do this experiment we would need to purchase a matching module to one of the broken ones.<br><br>Anyway my conclusion is due to the potential of fracturization on the cells the broken glass can't be removed without damage beyond the functionality of the cells.<br><br>So therefore varnish will work however the mineral oil would be a very good
experiemnt- I originally came up with the idea to build a new panel with removable glass where the panels used liquid mineral oil encapsulation instead of </span></b></font><span class="st">DuPont Elvax® PV EVA resins</span><font face="Arial" size="2"><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">s (type of glue encapuslation) because over the 25 year life of a module the encapsulation yellows - a liquid state like mineral oil can be replaced if it became yellow, plus I would add a thermocoupler heat exchange to the back of the module to remove the heat from the PV and dissipate to the domestic hot water system. <br><br><br><br>From:</span></b> nathan lachenmyer <scottnla@MIT.EDU><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Damian Decaires <solarcenter@rocketmail.com> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, December 22, 2011 2:54 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Energy]
solar panel donation<br> </font> <br>
Hey Damian,<br><br>Are you hoping to donate them, look for monetary compensation, etc?<br><br>I've
worked with solar cells before and have a couple of charge controllers
(and could get more); my roommate works in photovoltaics so he could
probably help replace the glass.<br><br>I'd be glad to work on
repurposing them if you're just looking for someone to take them off of
your hands and make sure they go to good use. Once they're in working
condition I would certainly allow OB to use them at whatever events they
need them for.<br><br>Nathan<div><br></div> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Eric Broadbent <ebroadbent@me.com><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Damian Decaires <solarcenter@rocketmail.com> <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> "energy@lists.occupyboston.org" <energy@lists.occupyboston.org>; "will@revoltlab.com" <will@revoltlab.com>; "juliettejulianna@gmail.com" <juliettejulianna@gmail.com> <br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, December 22, 2011 1:44 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [Energy] solar panel donation<br> </font> <br>
<div id="yiv532879536"><div><div>I have a barn and am willing to store while we work on re-finishing.</div><div>Am on a first-name basis with several large installers who could lend advice.</div><div>Will be traveling to PA and back around New Years - possibly could divert to pick them up if that works.</div><div>Only logistical issue for OB-Energy folks is that I'm almost an hour outside Boston.</div><div>If anyone else wants to help with the refinishing, then I'll do what I can - but I can't take the whole project on myself.</div><div>(Just thinking - this is possibly a good exercise for some HS/college students interested in PV...)</div><div><br></div><div>-Eric</div><br><div><div>On Dec 22, 2011, at 1:35 PM, Damian Decaires wrote:</div><br class="yiv532879536Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt;"><div>Hello - I have 16x solar
panels, range is between 175W to 230W, - about 2-3KW total <br></div><div><br></div><div>I have been working for 8 years in solar energy and occasionally panels get cracked because someone would drop a wrench or they got damaged in shipping etc.</div><div>So either i send them to junkyard, or a recycling plant to melt them down - either choice was unacceptable because it seemed wasteful since the glass although cracked the modules still work and produce electricity so i horded them in my basement hoping one day someone would like to clean them up and re-purpose them.</div><div><br></div><div>through the encapsulation process the cells are glued to the glass so there is no practical way to remove and replace the broken glass - so simply putting some clear coat varnish over the top to prevent water infiltration
would be adequate - the problem is rain water getting in between the cracks would cause de-lamination which would cause them to produce less power and damage them more - so well worth buying a couple gallons of clear coat varnish.</div><div><br></div><div>Anyway recently laid off so i need to get these out of storage ASAP so that i don't need to pay the storage locker fee. Please to help.</div><div>2 panels are already being used at Occupy Eason PA. <br></div><div><br>
</div>
<div> see video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nZQ9l7k7Ireet is </div><div><br></div><div> I would donate them locally to occupy newark NJ - but its too sophisticated a donation for them and Zuccotti park on wall st is evicted. So i dont want to give them to Newark because I dont want them to end up just sitting out there and then end up in a dumpster a week later - i held onto and collected these for years so I dont want to donate them to someone who cant get it together to make or buy a charge control circuit or purchase the deep cycle batteries.</div><div> <br></div><div>- Also there are some good junkyards in Newark NJ that have cheap used deep cycle fork lift batteries too.</div><div><br></div><div>call me 646 339 8069<br></div><div><br></div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Contact me when your ready to come pick
up.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br>Energy mailing list<br><br>Post: <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Energy@lists.occupyboston.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:Energy@lists.occupyboston.org">Energy@lists.occupyboston.org</a><br>List info: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/energy">https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/energy</a><br><br>To Unsubscribe<br> Send email to: <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Energy-unsubscribe@lists.occupyboston.org" target="_blank" href="mailto:Energy-unsubscribe@lists.occupyboston.org">Energy-unsubscribe@lists.occupyboston.org</a><br> Or visit: <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank"
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