Todd Dabney, who’s been going to the Burning Man pageant since 2011, wanted a method to maintain his tent cool below the baking Nevada solar. So the IT guide created what he calls “the ultimate swamp cooler” out of a heavy-duty plastic storage container, pumps, tubes and a fan.
Powering the gadget is a 385-watt JinkoSolar panel that he snapped up on Craigslist a number of years in the past from a close-by vendor for $100. Dabney remembers that the vendor was upgrading his photo voltaic array and eliminating his present panels, which have been about 5 years outdated.
“There was no reason to buy new panels” for the cooler, he says. “I knew I was taking this to Burning Man, and it’s going to get dusty and beaten up.”
As factories prove increasingly more new panels, the provision of used ones will increase in flip. Dabney is amongst a gaggle of photo voltaic buyers within the US who choose to purchase them secondhand, usually by listings on eBay, Craigslist and Fb Market. On message boards like Reddit’s r/photo voltaic and the DIY Photo voltaic Energy Discussion board, thrifters can share their experiences and swap set up suggestions.
Pre-owned panels are a beautiful choice for the frugal, in addition to DIY fans, tinkerers and homesteaders. Their price varies with age and output. Older panels, which often have decrease wattage, may be discovered on-line for below $50. Newer ones are inclined to have larger wattage and may price a number of occasions as a lot. However any secondhand panel from the following city over can be tariff-free, whereas nearly all of new panels put in within the US are imported, so topic to a levy.
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Giving the modules a second life has environmental advantages, specialists say, and as extra photo voltaic is put in globally, the area of interest used market might develop.
Arizona-based SanTan Photo voltaic sells each new and used panels by its web site and eBay. Its guardian firm, Fabtech Photo voltaic Options, runs a photo voltaic recycling enterprise that takes panels from decommissioned initiatives and assessments them for high quality. SanTan sells the used modules with a one-year guarantee.
Curiosity in pre-owned panels spiked in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, when Individuals have been spending extra time at dwelling, in line with SanTan gross sales supervisor Rusty Thatcher. “The primary end-users are people that are more energy independent, that are really more budget conscious — they’re really looking for a cheap alternative to other energy sources,” Thatcher says. They could wish to arrange a photo voltaic system for his or her RV or want to exchange a part of an current array, he provides.
Sameer Sajid turned to Fb Market in his seek for pre-owned photo voltaic to energy a charging station for his e-bike, a venture he undertook “just for fun.” Inside a day, the Massachusetts-based software program engineer discovered a vendor close to him providing a 250-watt Renogy-brand panel.
He purchased it — together with a cost controller, wanted to manage the circulation of vitality to the bike’s battery — for $100. Establishing the charging station took lower than half-hour, he says.
“If you’re trying to do it as cheaply as possible, used is 1,000% the way to go,” Sajid says.
Going used additionally avoids sending working panels into the waste stream prematurely. The Worldwide Renewable Power Company estimates that the cumulative waste from photovoltaics will attain 4 million tons globally in 2030, and nearly 50 million tons in 2040.
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Panels usually have a guaranty of 30 years, however many don’t attain their full lifespan earlier than being changed. Their manufacturing ends in the identical environmental impacts whether or not they’re in use for 3 years or three a long time.
“Once you’ve manufactured a PV panel, extending its lifetime through reuse amortizes the sunk, or embodied, environmental impacts over more electricity generation, reducing the per kilowatt-hour impacts,” says Garvin Heath, principal environmental engineer on the Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory and an professional on lifecycle evaluation of vitality applied sciences.
Nonetheless, used modules aren’t for everybody or each venture. There’s the apparent disadvantage of getting to vet high quality from a categorized advert. Delivery panels from distant may cause prices to spiral. Low-wattage or broken panels could have a tempting value however weak output, particularly since panels’ effectivity declines barely over time. And panels usually signify only a fraction of the overall price of establishing photo voltaic. The opposite elements required — like an inverter, wiring and, in lots of instances, a battery — rapidly add up.
New photo voltaic panels are already very low cost due to their abundance available in the market, notes BloombergNEF analyst Jenny Chase. Modules are usually designed to be arrange and left alone, she says, and manipulating them might put stress on them.
SanTan’s Thatcher says that relying on the use, individuals could also be higher off investing in brand-new panels to maximise the quantity of vitality captured.
“If people are looking at putting on a new solar array on their home that they want to have for 30 years, then I usually still recommend new panels,” he says. Federal tax credit can assist decrease the fee.
A median US family wants about 11 kilowatts to cowl its electrical energy utilization, and a system of that measurement with new panels usually prices round $20,500 to put in after federal tax credit, in line with information from EnergySage. The common time it takes to make that again in utility-bill financial savings is simply over seven years.
After establishing his e-bike charger, Sajid says he’s searching for new panels for his dwelling, to maximise the quantity of vitality he can produce. However he nonetheless sees benefits to utilizing secondhand ones in sure conditions. For instance, they’d be a very good match for his in-laws’ off-grid cabin within the mountains, he says, to fulfill fundamental electrical energy wants.
Dabney has been telling different Burning Man fans about his DIY cooling system and referring them to Craigslist and Fb Market for used panels.
“Having an affordable, free energy generator, I think, is really cool,” he says.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
