Here are the costs to build two panels of 36 cells or 346 W (in 2019). Of course it is cheaper to buy a larger quantity but for a solar system that makes sense, 346 W is not much, depending on your needs and your batteries. Buy a few more cells than you need, you sure will break several at first.
| Item | Quantity | Price ($ CAD) approximate |
| Multi crystalline solar cells 4.8W 16.5 mm2 Resin pencils Roll of metal tape 60 m (not enough) | 100 cells 3 flux pen 1 roll of metallic strip | 200 |
| Roll of metallic bus | 60 m | 22 |
| Roll of thin metallic strip | 60 m | 20 |
| Diodes | 100 | 25 |
| Long screws | 16 | 5 |
| Short screws | 10 | 5 |
| Glue | 1 | 20 |
| Silicon | 3 | 18 |
| Plywood | 1 | 0 ou 20 |
| Pair of MC4 connectors | 4 | 4 |
| Hot glue | 8 | 5 |
| Cables 30 A, 10 AWG | 2 m | 30 |
| Wood of the border | 3 m (environ) | 0 |
| Glass | 1 | 0 |
| TOTAL | – | 354 |
That’s about $ 354 CAD for 346 W (about $ 1 / W) and you should have some materials left knowing that the quantities have been overestimated. If you compare to commercial panels, for example some brands on Amazon, it’s twice as expensive. You can cut costs further by avoiding putting diodes and metal buses but I strongly recommend putting them for increased performance when there is shade or cracking of cells. In fact, when you build more panels, it is around $ 0.75 / W. The price of the tools was not considered knowing that they are used for other projects ideally and they are depreciated over time.