Step down

The issue with solar energy seems to be that it wiggles up and down on the productivity charts. Sometimes the sun shines sometimes not. I am experimenting with the two alternatives.

1. Use a large number of solar cells and step down the voltage, losing some of the energy as heat from the unit that drops the voltage.

2. Use all the available energy with minimal solar cells and step up the voltage to a useful level. This picture represents the first. The little cells are connected as pairs in series, then all the pairs are connected in parallel. Provided there is sufficient sun, the little chip reduces the voltage down to 5v and feeds it to a connector for a usb line wired to a female usb socket (not shown)

So far this is recognised by the phone etc, the unit lights up and bleeps to say that it has been connected to a charger, but the charge is minimal. I suspect I need to have three or more panels in series and connect the string of them in parallel.