Robin Bussell wrote:

> I'd love to hear Russell's (or anyone else's for that matter ) take on
> what these two are doing:

> http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alex9000/the-solar-pocket-factory-an-=
invention-adventure

Not a lot compared to what other people are offering on ebay  and the
internet in general  - and in fact less than some others BUT they do
offer a kitset and some get you going impetus which is helpful to
some.

I did like their clothespeg instant charger. Very cute

            http://www.instructables.com/id/Five-minute-solar-phone-charger=
/


An area which is vitally crucial (or crucially vital) that they do not
seem to have come to grips with yet is the range of extremely
important roles that encapulants play in making a PV panel.

They are currently offering epoxy resin.
As they correctly observe, epoxy is good for about two years of UV
exposure - and that depends on which epoxy you happen to use and
whether you leave the PV panels in the weather all the time or not.
Epoxy is a very poor material in many ways and was traditionally used
because it was easy to use, relatively cheap and available. A quick
skim indicates they do not do vacuum outgassing (can be done with low
tech equipment if desired) which cam be a major requirement. depending
on other factors.

I will not go into vast details on what and why an encapsulant should
be like but a good summary is low modulus (flexible) when set,
excellent voidless adhesion to PV material, low dissolved water
content, minimal UV degradation, minimal corrosive degradation
products with time. Note that water permeability is not the same as
dissolved water % and that the former  is far less important. For
detailed reasons why please advise consulting rates paid :-).




            Russell McMahon.
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