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OfflineRoker
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Revolutionary Solar Panel invented in South Africa
    #5607623 - 05/09/06 05:25 AM (17 years, 8 months ago)

Read about this in Nexus Magazine - if this is the real deal it could mean cheap clean energy for ever (at least until the sun goes out)!

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=vn20060211110132138C184427


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InvisibleAsante
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Re: Revolutionary Solar Panel invented in South Africa [Re: Roker]
    #5608107 - 05/09/06 10:12 AM (17 years, 8 months ago)

Always quote your sources! Often the source takes it down and the thread looses its topic.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SA solar research eclipses rest of the world
Willem Steenkamp
February 11 2006 at 12:50PM

In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun.

This means high electricity bills and frequent power failures could soon be a thing of the past.

The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies.

The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house.

Nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the SA invention
The new technology should be available in South Africa within a year and through a special converter, energy can be fed directly into the wiring of existing houses. New powerful storage units will allow energy storage to meet demands even in winter. The panels are so efficient they can operate through a Cape Town winter. while direct sunlight is ideal for high-energy generation, other daytime light also generates energy via the panels.

A team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) scientist Professor Vivian Alberts achieved the breakthrough after 10 years of research. The South African technology has now been patented across the world.

One of the world leaders in solar energy, German company IFE Solar Systems, has invested more than R500-million in the South African invention and is set to manufacture 500 000 of the panels before the end of the year at a new plant in Germany.

Production will start next month and the factory will run 24 hours a day, producing more than 1 000 panels a day to meet expected demand.

Another large German solar company is negotiating with the South African inventors for rights to the technology, while a South African consortium of businesses are keen to build local factories.

The new, highly efficient and cheap alloy solar panel is much more efficient than the costly old silicone solar panels.

International experts have admitted that nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the South African invention.

The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications.

Alberts said the new panels are approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) while the older silicon panels are 350 microns thick. the cost of the South African technology is a fraction of the less effective silicone solar panels.

Alberts said in Switzerland it was already compulsory for all new houses to include solar technology to lessen energy demands on national grids.

"And that was the older, less effective technology. With our hours of sunlight, we will on average generate twice as much energy than, for instance, European countries."

While South African scientists developed and patented the new, super-effective alloy solar panels, other companies have developed new, super-efficient storage batteries and special converters to change the energy into the power source of a particular country (220 volts in South Africa).

# Eskom spokesperson Carin de Villiers said any new power supply that lessened the load on Eskom was to be welcomed.

She said Eskom was also doing its own research on solar energy.

"In fact, we are currently investigating building what will probably be the largest solar power plant, in the Northern Cape - a 100-megawatt facility."

She added that Eskom was also researching wind and fuel-cell technology as alternative energy sources.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'm really interested in this! Cheap solar panels should kick off a revolution in clean energy.

One square meter gets 1 megawatt/year in England and 2.5 megawatt/year on the equator. If you look at the English situation, if you have a panel of one square meter and you get 25% energy yield then that single panel can deliver 28.5 watts of power 24/7 throughout that year, and 71 Wh continuously in the tropics.


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OfflineSeussA
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Re: Revolutionary Solar Panel invented in South Africa [Re: Asante]
    #5608142 - 05/09/06 10:23 AM (17 years, 8 months ago)

> if you have a panel of one square meter and you get 25% energy yield

You are going to be very hard pressed to convert 25% of photon energy into electrical energy. If I remember correctly, the theoretical max is 36%. Most terrestrial grade silicon cells are around 12% to 15% while space grade gallium arsenide cells are in the 21% to 23% range (and cost over $100 per cm^2)... an eight square meter panel can cost several million dollars and generate a nice 1500 to 2000 watts peak power at solar noon... enough to run a hair dryer, but certainly not enough to run a household.

The claims of the story are certainly interesting. It will be interesting to see if they are true or not.


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OfflineTurn
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Registered: 12/14/04
Posts: 367
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Re: Revolutionary Solar Panel invented in South Africa [Re: Seuss]
    #5611917 - 05/10/06 09:00 AM (17 years, 8 months ago)

Awesome, I hope it works out

More about em
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20060505113812723C845208



Potential local investors meet German industrialists next week to discuss setting up a South African company to manufacture hi-tech solar energy panels developed by South African scientists.

A German company has acquired the initial rights to make thinner and cheaper solar panels developed by local researchers led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) physics professor Vivian Alberts, and goes into full production next March.

These photovoltaic (PV) panels - which generate electricity, as opposed to conventional solar panels that simply heat water directly - will be 50 percent cheaper than their PV market competitors, and could revolutionise the use of renewable solar energy worldwide if the commercial production and application is successful.

Alberts told the Cape Town Press Club on Thursday that the second licence to make the revolutionary new panels would likely go to a local company that would be set up this year.

'Of course, that's theoretical'
He said that even two or three of the super-thin panels, which each produce about 60 watts of electricity, could make a tremendous difference to people's lives.

This would be enough to power a home's lights, a television and a computer.

The new panels could particularly benefit 15 million poor people in South Africa who don't have conventional electricity.

"If you give a person just one panel, it will make a significant difference to the lifestyle of that person," Alberts said.

Although the government has invested in the project - Alberts and his team received R13m from the Department of Science and Technology's innovation trust fund, and the Central Energy Fund is one of the potential local investors - it was essential it promoted solar energy through policy changes, he said.

Alberts said 30 person of the e25 million technology development costs of the German company, which will produce 400 000 of the 60-watt panels to make up a production capacity of 25 MW a year, were being subsidised by the German government.

"We should and must immediately, without any delay, develop renewable energy resources in this country. Seriously hampering the mass application of solar energy is a lack of efficient government policies to develop and support local PV industries."

Saying solar energy was truly renewable, Alberts pointed out that the sun would last for another 10 billion years, and that just eight seconds of sunlight could provide enough energy to meet South Africa's entire annual energy demand.

"Of course, that's theoretical," he added.

He conceded that currently it cost 10 times as much to set up a photovoltaic solar panel production facility as an equivalent size fossil fuel or nuclear generator.

But the costs would come down with increased production and as conventional fossil fuels became expensive.

Although the first full commercial production of his new panel technology would be in Germany, it would not be lost to South Africa. They were planning to have a commercial company here "within the next few months".

"I foresee that this technology will be developed in this country on a massive scale. It will result in a product you will be able to buy, I predict, within the next few years.

"The technology is there, the will is there, the interest is there, but of course you also need the government's active participation."

The industry to manufacture the panels in Germany was being built in container-size compartments.

"We can really break that industry up and ship it to South Africa. That was the whole idea behind it.

"So what we're trying to do is to duplicate this technology as quickly as possible across the world."

He said he had received "thousands" of phone calls from Capetonians hit by power cuts.

"They're just begging me for three or four panels, so when their power is cut off they can get at least the basic requirements to drive their television and lights in the house.

"So Eskom is creating an enormous additional market for us."


Edited by Turn (05/10/06 09:06 AM)


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OfflineSeussA
Error: divide byzero

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Re: Revolutionary Solar Panel invented in South Africa [Re: Turn]
    #5612414 - 05/10/06 12:05 PM (17 years, 8 months ago)

> can get at least the basic requirements to drive their television

Wah... must be nice to have a television... must be even nicer to have a standard of living so high that one would consider a television to be a "basic requirement"... so much for food, water, and shelter, I guess.


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OfflineCordellLewallen
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Re: Revolutionary Solar Panel invented in South Africa [Re: Asante]
    #20727600 - 10/20/14 04:07 AM (9 years, 3 months ago)

Quote:

Asante said:
Always quote your sources! Often the source takes it down and the thread looses its topic.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

SA solar research eclipses rest of the world
    Willem Steenkamp
    February 11 2006 at 12:50PM

In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power system technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun.

This means high electricity bills and frequent power failures could soon be a thing of the past.

The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies.

The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house.

Nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the SA invention
The new technology should be available in South Africa within a year and through a special converter, energy can be fed directly into the wiring of existing houses. New powerful storage units will allow energy storage to meet demands even in winter. The panels are so efficient they can operate through a Cape Town winter. while direct sunlight is ideal for high-energy generation, other daytime light also generates energy via the panels.

A team of scientists led by University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University) scientist Professor Vivian Alberts achieved the breakthrough after 10 years of research. The South African technology has now been patented across the world.

One of the world leaders in solar energy, German company IFE Solar Systems, has invested more than R500-million in the South African invention and is set to manufacture 500 000 of the panels before the end of the year at a new plant in Germany.

Production will start next month and the factory will run 24 hours a day, producing more than 1 000 panels a day to meet expected demand.

Another large German solar company is negotiating with the South African inventors for rights to the technology, while a South African consortium of businesses are keen to build local factories.

The new, highly efficient and cheap alloy solar panel is much more efficient than the costly old silicone solar panels.

International experts have admitted that nothing else comes close to the effectiveness of the South African invention.


The South African solar panels consist of a thin layer of a unique metal alloy that converts light into energy. The photo-responsive alloy can operate on virtually all flexible surfaces, which means it could in future find a host of other applications.

Alberts said the new panels are approximately five microns thick (a human hair is 20 microns thick) while the older silicon panels are 350 microns thick. the cost of the South African technology is a fraction of the less effective silicone solar panels.

Alberts said in Switzerland it was already compulsory for all new houses to include solar technology to lessen energy demands on national grids.

"And that was the older, less effective technology. With our hours of sunlight, we will on average generate twice as much energy than, for instance, European countries."

While South African scientists developed and patented the new, super-effective alloy solar panels, other companies have developed new, super-efficient storage batteries and special converters to change the energy into the power source of a particular country (220 volts in South Africa).

# Eskom spokesperson Carin de Villiers said any new power supply that lessened the load on Eskom was to be welcomed.

She said Eskom was also doing its own research on solar energy.

"In fact, we are currently investigating building what will probably be the largest solar power plant, in the Northern Cape - a 100-megawatt facility."

She added that Eskom was also researching wind and fuel-cell technology as alternative energy sources.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


I'm really interested in this! Cheap solar panels should kick off a revolution in clean energy.

One square meter gets 1 megawatt/year in England and 2.5 megawatt/year  on the equator. If you look at the English situation, if you have a panel of one square meter and you get 25% energy yield then that single panel can deliver 28.5 watts of power 24/7 throughout that year, and 71 Wh continuously in the tropics.



Solar power is definitely the future..Efficiency of these panels has increased in recent which simply means more power output..


Edited by CordellLewallen (10/20/14 11:33 PM)


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