On: Teenager invents solar panel made from human hair

[brk]

This doesn't make any sense. It costs (according to the article) $38US to produce about 18W of electricity, a little over $2/W.

I'm currently buying solar panels from China for $1.85/W US in small quantities, and they generally throw in the charge controllers as well.

The article also implies that the hair needs to be replaced at some regular interval.

Hardly newsworthy.

[kragen → brk]

Where do you get your panels? http://www.wholesalesolar.com/solar-panels.html lists prices from about US$3 to about US$10 per watt for panels in the 100-200W range and nothing below 100W, and http://www.solarbuzz.com/Moduleprices.htm has this lovely graph by month up in the US$4.40 range. I see http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm lists some panels for US$1.85 per watt, but the discrepancy is worrying.

[brk → kragen]

Direct from the manufacturers and/or their factory reps. This is for panels in the 50-100W range.

[huherto → brk]

Just curious. What do you use your panels for? Personal use or do you build stuff to sell.

[kragen → brk]

Which manufacturers, and what kind of quantities do you have to buy in?

[anigbrowl → brk]

Well, you expect the prototype to be more expensive. This should be trivially easy to test.

[thegeek → anigbrowl]

I found a second example on youtube last night. http://offgridissues.com/site/off-grid-energy/31-off-grid-en...

I am going to test this soon, see for myself , would love it to be true.