I've recently had several people ask me "what type of solder do I use when building my solar panels?". It's a good question with several right answers. Put simply, you can use whatever solder you want for building your solar panel (provided you don't use plumbing solder).

The traditional solder is an alloy made of tin and lead mixed in various combinations. This type of solder works great... it has a low melting point and is quite easy to work with; however, it does have lead in it. That means if you have kids around or it's going to be outside you shouldn't use it. I have used this solder in the past and it works great. You don't really need to worry about lead contamination because the solar panels are sealed so no water can get in and erode it away.

A more popular alternative is to use a lead free solder. These solders are more environmentally friendly (RoHS compliant, basically means it's not bad for the environment) and they are just as easy to use. I went looking for this solder in the local hardware stores and couldn't find it. The only place I could find it was of course... ebay. If you're looking to get this type of solder just click the link below:

Silver Solder for Solar Panels

The solder is just one part of building a solar panel though. You also need flux. Flux is a paste that prevents oxidation when you're soldering. This results in better bonds between whatever you're soldering. That means that you're solar panel will be more efficient at moving electricity around which means that your panel is going to produce more power. There are two ways that you can buy flux: in a paste or as a liquid in a pen form. I recommend the pen type flux as it's a lot easier to work with. You should be able to find the flux paste in your local hardware store. I have yet to find the liquid pen flux in a hardware store so I resort to ebay again. You can find it here if you can't find it in your hardware store:

Solar Panel Flux

The last thing you need is a soldering iron. Make sure you get one with a chisel tip! Most soldering irons come with a pointy tip (what I use in the videos), but unless you have quite a bit of experience it's quite difficult. The chisel tip on a soldering iron makes it a breeze to tab solar cells and to connect the cells together.

Those are pretty much the important tools that you need for building solar panels. Remember, the solder and flux may seem expensive but you'll be able to build 10 or 20 panels with it so the per panel cost is quite low.

If you would like to learn more about building solar panels just click here