Seabreeze Restoration part 5: Green Power

Now that I have a storage solution, I need a sustainable and readily available source of energy. In Florida wind and solar are the easiest solutions. But wind generators are expensive, and difficult to build to standards that can survive marine environments; so for now I've decided to go for solar. To charge my capacitor bank, I need a solar panel that produces exactly 12 volts. And as most panels actually produce around 18 volts, to effectively charge batteries. I will have to build a custom panel. Surprisingly, building a panel is not terribly difficult. And it cuts a huge chunk off the price of solar power, if you buy the cells off of ebay, and connect them yourself. One thing that also give me an edge is that I work as the studio manager of the sculpture department, and thus have access to all of the studio's fancy tools :)   Basically all that needs to be done, is solder the cells together, then submerge them in a layer of marine epoxy against a sheet of glass, supported inside an aluminum frame. Piece of cake ;)