Your Questions About What Are Solar Panels Made Of

Henry Dover answers:

 
How to make a solar generator from scratch is less expensive but more labour intensive. You will need raw copper sheeting and it is available at hardware stores and then a heat source. The copper must be heated for at least a half hour for a chemical reaction that produces copper oxide.  When the copper sheeting is cold you combine it with another non-oxidized copper sheet of the same size. You then add a salt-water solution and then all the components is enclosed in a durable glass panel. You have a low voltage panel now. It depends on how much power you want on the number of panels you will have to make.

Henry Dover answers:

I think they are experimenting with all kinds of materials for PV cell construction.

Cadmium telluride
Copper-Indium Selenide
Gallium arsenide (GaAs)
Light-absorbing dyes
Organic/polymer solar cells

I don’t know what the environmental impact of these things is, if anything.

If you’re looking for negatives to solar power, crystalline silicon cell manufacturing is very energy-intensive. It involves molten silicon which must be heated to 1600 C or 2900 F.

The cells have to spend a long time in the sun to produce more energy than it takes to make them.