SA's alternative energy source
10 November 2004
The Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg has turned the energy scene upside down by inventing a revolutionary solar panel, or photo-voltaic cell, that is much more efficient than the current technology.
According to The Citizen newspaper, the university's physics department, after two decades of researching photo-voltaic, has developed a technique that enables the construction of solar panels from a new material at a very low cost.
The RAU physicists, who worked with their counterparts from the Universities of Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, have found over the last two years that solar panels can be produced in commercial volumes at R500 for a 50-watt panel, which is much cheaper than existing panels available on the market.
A pilot assembly plant, which was officially opened by the Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena on Tuesday, was built at RAU with a R13.2-million grant from the Department of Science and
Technology. The university management put up an additional R2-million top-up.
The new material, called the copper-indium-gallium-diselenide, or Cigs, is said to be about 300 times more efficient than silicon at converting sunlight into an electric current, according to the newspaper report. Cigs reportedly absorbs more than 99 percent of available solar energy compared to 350 microns of silicon to do the same job.
Speaking at the launch, Mangena said South Africa's ability to harness abundant and freely available form of energy into electricity will put the country in the forefront of world competition.
He said statistics showed that only two thirds of South Africans had access to electricity and for the rest of sub-Saharan African the figure was 10 percent.
"That is why projects like these, which are looking at alternative sustainable energy sources, are very important for the continent's economic growth," said Mangena.
He added that the Innovation
Fund which funded the project was established to promote key issues of competitiveness, quality of life, environmental sustainability, and the harnessing of information technology.
"We are now expecting this project to reach its final aim of creating a platform for developing the world's foremost solar electricity industry in our country. This will generate substantial income from exports and licensing of the technology," he said.
Physicist Vivian Alberts said the application of the technology will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and global warming in the country.
"Adding to these benefits we can foresee a huge inflow of foreign exchange by exporting the technology as well as significant job-creation by establishing a solar energy industry in the country," said Alberts.
"In addition, solar photovoltaic technology can be produced in any desired amount from a few milliwatts to many megawatts," he said, adding that it was therefore unnecessary to erect
large power stations to serve communities.
He said that "abundant" energy could be brought to people in underdeveloped communities with schools and clinics in rural areas benefiting more.
Alberts added that the project will boost socio-economic development in the next decade as a result of the production of the cheap, efficient solar panels to generate electricity.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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