Course Description:

Learn how to make your own solar panels from recycled materials with Demand Energy Equality – and take home a completed solar panel at the end of the day! Learn the fundamentals of making a solar panel to produce electricity for your shed, home, community project, or anywhere! From where to source the materials to how to connect multiple panels together, you will learn all you need to know to build a small or large solar panel for a fraction of the cost of buying one.

You will learn:

The electrical basics: current, voltage, resistance, power, series and parallel circuits.

How to build DIY solar PV panels.

How to test and understand your panel.

Information about the energy dilemma in the UK and possible future solutions.

You will be provided with all the materials you need to build your own 40-80W panel to take away (the size of the panel you build depends on how well you and the soldering iron get on(!), but 40 watts is the minimum you will build).

You will get detailed documentation to build these systems, how they work and how to tailor them to your needs.

Course Tutor

Simon White has been managing and teaching Solar panel building and solar off grid systems, as well as sustainable food growing techniques and permaculture in both the UK and Africa for the last three years, and has run ecological food production programmes at several small farms and city farms. He likes to make organic fertiliser, grow mushrooms, build solar panels and experiment with different sustainable food techniques, as well as growing as much fruit and vegetables as possible. He has run a series of solar courses at Stepney City Farm, and produces all of his electricity at home from solar power.

Dates:

The course is a one day course, and we have four dates to choose from over four over the summer:

12^th July 2014

26^th July 2014

9^th August 2014

23^rd August 2014

all courses run from 9.30am – 5.00pm

Fees

£100 whole course, including taking home the solar panel you build on the day.

Booking

Booking is essential as some of our courses will be fully booked weeks in advance, and can be at http://www.demandenergyequality.org/shop.html. However if places are still available then reservations can be made until 4pm the day before the course.