Saving a broken 125 watt panel

[Billr57]

Help, is there any way that I can remove the broken glass from a PV Ceil and than install it onto a new glass? I was thinking that I could take a heat gun and warm up the Ceil and remove the broken glass, but I'm not sure this would work? is there any other way to do this?

Thanks

Bill

[Clifford]

It would be interesting to "play with", but I can empathize with your loss of a $500 or so panel.

Is this a single cell panel, or a multi-cell panel?

Perhaps there are some advantages of the older Multi-cell panels as they may be easier to tear apart and repair.

I was thinking of heat stability issues of the cell....

However,

Your cell should be designed for a significant operating temperature range...  It should be designed to withstand heat up to at least 100C - 200C, perhaps more.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the adhesives used are good for several hundred degrees.

As the cells are a multi-layer design, you almost need a few small pieces to experiement with different methods of disassembly.  For example, you could try a solvent such as acetone or MEK (Methyl-Ethyl-Keytone) (which could easily damage any or all layers of the cell).

[PaulJ]

   I share your pain, I recently smashed a 165W Sharp panel (partly finished tracker, not properly anchored, windy night....).

   I had a bit of a chat with the local solar supplier about salvaging it, he has had numerous broken panels due to shipping damage, he's tried the heat gun method and couldn't remove the cells without destroying them.

   My solution was to mount the damaged panel under a somewhat larger piece of tempered glass to keep the weather off it, and hope for the best. So far , it's producing about 75% of what it used to.

   Thermal stress will probably kill it eventually - little flakes of glass keep falling off it - but hopefully it will last a few years.

   Good luck!

   Paul.

[Clifford]

I was wondering about laminating a larger piece of glass (or plexiglass) right over the top of the broken glass.

Look up:   silver electric* paint    on E-Bay for a silver laden conductive paint.  Works on keyboards, not sure about solar cells.

[DanG]

Very interested in any & all pictures of broken PV array panels that are out there!

If the cover glass is tempered, breaking it means a zillion shards all laminated to the encapsulant?

http://www.dupont.com/photovoltaics/

This site has ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resins 'softening points' temperatures listed as between 80C (176F) and 233 (440F).

These temperatures require oven heating to be able to control the temperature precisely since 'softening' is just a beginning point to succesfully manipulate the plastic. A recirculating hot air 'bed' seems like a good place to start.

Also note they blend parafin into many mixes for better moisture exclusion, a solvent that is good at dissolving parafin might be a place to start..

http://tinyurl.com/a52lv

http://tinyurl.com/cjlsl

[Billr57]

I just had a brain fart, What about using some type of window film over the PV, do you think if I could find some type of clear film like they use on cars to protect the front end form rock chips would work?

Bill

[Argie]

You just posted what I was about to, but aren't all of those films claimed to be U.V. "reducers" that could have an effect on the level of solar energy that reaches the cells?