Professor claim solar panel breakthrough.

[buddysmellgood]

"Prof Vivian Alberts of University of Johannesburg claims he can make solar panels that are around five microns thick - this compares to conventional photovoltaic devices that are 350 microns thick. He also says the cost of the technology is a fraction of that of less effective silicone solar panels. Unfortunately merely stating that a product is cheaper than ones that are not as good is no substitute for audited performance data – and at the time of writing this has not been forthcoming.

The original project was based on predictions that CIGS panels could supply electricity at a cost of about 50c per kW-h - or possibly less. However this is still high compared with the cost of generating power with conventional devices and, depending on how durable and efficient the CIGS panels are, it is unclear that the $4/watt barrier has been broken."

http://www.carbonfree.co.uk/cf/news/wk08-0005.htm



Please, please let this be true.

[Coastie for Truth]

1. Must be something

There are about three research groups independently working on CIGS.

[benburch]

3. There are advances all over this field.

This probably being one of them. I suspect that some of them would be compatible with each other, too, and that a hybrid device incorporating several different new technologies should be possible.

[Coastie for Truth]

6. I lost my funding when we were working on thin film

amorphous Si cells by plasma CVD.

[benburch]

8. DAMN.

That sucks.

[IDemo]

2. Discussion well under way over at GD -->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=523072&mesg_id=523072

[buddysmellgood]

4. Thanks. I searched, but could not find the post.

[applegrove]

5. This is very exciting. And South Africa better keep all proprietary

rights in South Africa - OR I WILL GO DOWN THERE AND WHIP THEIR ASSES!!

[nicknameless]

7. K&R for clean options.

[skids]

9. This article really boggles me.

Not the content. I mean CIGS cells are not exactly a new thing and plenty of people are already working on sputtering and roll-to-roll manufacturing tech. And it's not a bad thing that it's getting coverage, because CIGS is the right technology to be backing for scaleup right now. What boggles my mind is why it's cropping up everywhere, two or three times on every board. Honda's announcement that they are going to start producing the same kind of cells barely got any notice. Shell's divestiture of their mono-Si cell business in order to concentrate on these same kind of cells didn't get much notice either. Maybe their PR firms need to start putting "amazing breakthrough" in their press releases. :eyes:

[EuroObserver]

10. PR is very important in the markets, n'est ce pas? n/t