Sources of broken PV cells to solder together + good alt.energy book to buy?

[cdev]

Hi.

I am looking for two things, a good alt.energy /PV book and a source of solar cell material 'seconds' to play with.

In the past, people could buy bags of pieces of solar cells and solder them together to make DIY solar arrays of any size they wanted. Can I still do this, and if so, where can I get a good price on good quality base material. I am not averse to soldering to get cheap panels. This is what they do in the Third World.

Initially, I'd like to make some solar cells to wire some sensors to, so they would not be so dependent on my constantly replacing or recharging their batteries.

Also, what would I need to do to use the produced power more consistently? (Joule thief circuitry? micro scale DC-DC conversion? ) 

Actually, I would love to buy a physical book on this subject. (that would be more useful than a digital book in extended power outages!)

Is there a "Bible" of alternative energy information these days, kind of like the old "Whole Earth Catalog", which if I remember correctly, contained lots of info on stuff like PV?

A big, perennially useful paper book.

[fourtytwo42]

Sure you can do that (solder together) I have seen such things advertised on Ebay (shattered bits) but then if your going to use it outdoors you have to encapsulate it etc and frankly the price of finished panels per W is now low enough it's hard to compete with DIY.

As for books you don't say what country your from but the local library is usually a good source for starters.