Solar panels around the globe are primarily designed as a plug-and-play solution and the end users are not allowed to repair the panel in case of damage. Natural loadings such wind, snow, sand and hail can lead to irreparable damage to the solar panels and the easiest solution to fix the damaged solar panel is to replace it. This design philosophy leads to a huge quantity of electronic waste as it completely ignores the repairability of the solar panels. In this regard, the presented research work details the development and testing of modular solar panel with performance similar to the traditional design. The modular design was tested for power transfer, re-connection upon impact and the ability to replace the selected parts in case of permanent damage without the need of replacing the entire solar panel. This experimental research work delivers a modular solar panel design that has ease of repairability in case of damage. Furthermore, a detailed economic analysis has been provided for several real-world scenarios that indicate its suitability over existing commercially available solutions. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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