ABSTRACT

The solar panels are usually designed to withstand up to 2,400 pascals with the aid of an encapsulant layer that helps absorb the shocks from mechanical vibrations or impact.

This research work is aimed at observing the electrical characteristics of an uncracked solar panel, a cracked solar panel by carrying out the short circuit and open circuit, then carrying out repair on the solar panel using acrylic adhesive, then observing the electrical characteristics of the repaired solar panel with same tests as uncracked and cracked panels, finally a comparison of all results obtained from the analysis of each test case.

To effectively carry out this project, the materials used were an uncracked solar panel, a cracked solar panel, one multimeter, one solar power meter, acrylic adhesive, and two 9V batteries. The positive terminal of the solar panel was connected to the red probe of the multimeter and the negative terminal of the solar panel was connected to the black probe of the multimeter in other to effectively carry out the voltage and current test respectively.

Upon comparing the results of the research, it is observed that the performance of the cracked solar panel is improved after applying the acrylic adhesive. Although the performance is not as good as the uncracked panel, the value of the short circuit current and open-circuit voltage is near that of the uncracked panel, and the efficiency of the solar panel is improved.