Solar Power Using An Alloy Film Better Than Silicon
Further to: "Off-The-Grid" Right Now here is some great news. Starting with following two articles - a very interesting technology to follow up on.
..."solar photovoltaic technology can be produced in any desired amount, from a few milliwatts to many megawatts, if so desired. It is not necessary to erect large power stations to serve a community with energy from this technology.
A typical middle-class suburban family needs only about 30 square metres (about the size of a living room) of solar panels to supply all of its electricity needs."..
This highly efficient Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide (CIGS) alloy eclipses Silicon and should finally make solar energy possible.
Here is a collection of scientific literature from NREL on Copper Indium Diselenide (CIS):
Chris Gupta
----------------------------SA solar research eclipses rest of the world
By Willem Steenkamp
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.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Saturday Argus on February 11, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Novel Invention Could Mean Cheaper Source Of Energy From Solar Power
Energy security has become one of the hottest political topics in the last few years with the prospects of skyrocketing oil prices and shortages. Along with the looming dangers of climate change, the urgency of alternatives to CO2 emitting energy sources is becoming more obvious by the day. One of the most important actions to counter these challenges is the establishment of alternative energy sources such as solar energy. Latest research by South African scientists have taken us one step further to realising these goals.
Solar power
Solar power has traditionally been differentiated into solar thermal and solar photovoltaic (or PV for short) systems. The photo-voltaic effect is a phenomenon that depends on quantum physics, and allows specific materials to directly convert solar radiation to electricity. The photo-voltaic effect is used in solar panels, that have been powering spacecraft for decades and have recently been making their presence felt in supplying electricity to free-standing locations on earth, like telephone towers and pump systems on farms.
However, the panels available commercially today are almost all based on high-purity silicon as the photo-voltaic material, and these panels are much more expensive than the equivalent amount of coal, petrol or gas.
The only way to make photovoltaic energy more widely used, is to make devices (including solar panels) that are much cheaper than the current silicon-based devices. The most promising PV material identified to date is Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide (CIGS).
CIGS is much more efficient than silicon at converting incident sunlight into an electric current: Less than one micron of CIGS absorbs more than 99% of available incident solar energy, compared to 350 microns of silicon to do the same job.
Despite the excitement around CIGS, significant cost savings compared to silicon were not achieved, despite 20 years of research. However, a new development has made the picture considerably brighter.
Cost-saving CIGS solar panels
Prof Vivian Alberts of the Department of Physics at the Rand Afrikaans University in South Africa and team have developed and patented a novel manufacturing technique that finally makes it possible to construct CIGS solar panels at a very low cost. The method is easily upscalable to industrial output levels, while remaining much cheaper to produce than conventional silicon solar panels.
Work done over the last two years indicates that panels can be produced in commercial volumes at a cost of about R 500 for a 50 Watt panel. This is much cheaper than existing solar panels available on the market. CIGS is a remarkably stable material and conversion efficiencies should be sustainable for 15-20 years in any given panel.
RAU physicists are currently collaborating with physicists from the University of Port Elizabeth and the University of Pretoria to make 20 Watt CIGS panels, thanks to an award by the Innovation Fund in the national Department of Science and Technology during 2003. The award, in the amount of R 13,2 million, has been used to construct a pilot assembly facility on the RAU campus (with more than R 2 million of top-up funds added by RAU management).
The two main components of the facility are a state-of-the-art sputtering instrument and a state-of-the-art diffusion oven. The former was designed by Leybold Optics of Dresden, Germany, and the latter by Wilro Technologies in the Netherlands. Both these instruments were designed according to Prof Alberts' unique and novel specifications and are, at the moment, the only examples of their kind in the world. They also constitute the best combination of instruments of this kind in the world at present.
Benefits
This patented technology has caused great excitement across a broad front of stakeholders, since it promises to bring the practical cost of applying solar photovoltaic systems for electricity production down to a level comparable to coal-fired or nuclear technologies.
Furthermore, the technology contributes nothing to carbon dioxide emissions and consumes only the resources used to manufacture the solar panels (the metals copper, indium and gallium and the non-metal selenium). These materials could in principle all be recycled into new panels at the end of the useful lifetime of a panel, since no material whatsoever is consumed. The finite lifetime (15-20 years) of a panel is simply due to deterioration of the crystal structure over time.
The energy used to make a panel is recovered within 1-2 years of operation, beyond which a further 13-18 years of net energy production remain. There is no vulnerability to disruptions in fuel supply, since sunlight is the fuel consumed.
In addition, solar photovoltaic technology can be produced in any desired amount, from a few milliwatts to many megawatts, if so desired. It is not necessary to erect large power stations to serve a community with energy from this technology.
A typical middle-class suburban family needs only about 30 square metres (about the size of a living room) of solar panels to supply all of its electricity needs.
The technology also holds great promise for socio-economic development, especially in the rural areas of Southern Africa. - RAU
More information:
The pilot production facility was officially opened by the South African national minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, on 9 November 2004.
Sonia Cronjé: Media Relations, Division of Public Affairs, RAU. stc@rau.ac.za
Related articles:
Nigeria: Warming up to solar energy
posted by Chris Gupta on Tuesday February 21 2006
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December 14, 2010Breakthrough Power:
"How quantum-leap new energy inventions can transform our world" by Jeane Manning & Joel Garbon is a non technical and easy to understand book that contains a fantastic summary of "free energy*" devices. The authors have done a superb job of making this difficult and somewhat esoteric information accessible to all. Both the experienced and those new and/or starting out in this exciting area of research will find the book eminently suitable. I have always loved Jeane's writings. She has an uncanny ability to explain complex scientific and mathematical concepts to the lay person that most scientists and mathematicians simply can't do! This combined with Joel's industry background makes this work even better.
*Free Energy does not mean that you get something for nothing it simply means that you get more energy then what you put in. This can be done for example by using very little energy to access are larger pool of existing energy source.
A distinguishing feature of clean technologies is how they harmoniously work with nature. Unlike legacy technologies which are inclined to disregard and/or override natural phenomena. Much of the confusion on free energy stems from the interpretation, or should I say misinterpretation, of second law of thermodynamics (which essentially states that you cannot get more energy out than is put into the system). The book does an excellent job of getting to the root of this misunderstanding in lay and professional terms and explains why it is possible to get more energy than one puts into a system when we harnesses the "wheel works of nature". See:
Continue reading "Breakthrough Power:"
posted by Chris Gupta on Tuesday December 14 2010
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May 02, 2007Caution About Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL)
Yes further to: Sunlight, Lighting And Your Health (Dangers Of Fluorescent Lighting). With the exponentially increasing toxins in the environment adding mercury spill from fluorescent bulbs is simply unacceptable.
Chris Gupta
See also:
Communities In Bloom Goes Environmentally To The Dark Side
The message below will advise you about one problem concerning the use of compact fluorescent bulbs. You should also be aware that many of these bulbs contribute to 'dirty electricity' by putting dangerous high frequencies on the electrical system. Please also read the attached documents which relate to dirty electricity.
Martin
----- Original Message -----
From: Robert RiedlingerSubject: Fw: Danger of Compact Flourescent (CFL) bulbs
From Fox News:
Light Bulb Lunacy (Original is here.)
Thursday , April 26, 2007By Steven Milloy
How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent lightbulb? About $4.28 for the bulb and labor - unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about $2,004.28, which doesn't include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.
Sound crazy? Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favor of compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) - a move already either adopted or being considered in California, Canada, the European Union and Australia.
According to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American, Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter's bedroom: It dropped and shattered on the carpeted floor.
Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
Continue reading "Caution About Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL)"
posted by Chris Gupta on Wednesday May 2 2007
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November 05, 2006"Population Reduction" -- Or Change Of Paradigm?
"Many writers have spoken of intentional plans by certain Elite to thin-out the world's population; it's a recurring theme among so-called conspiracy theorists. There are frequent references to "useless eaters", which includes the bulk of mankind. Most, when hearing of plots to depopulate the planet, simply say under their breath, "Yeah, right," or more often, while shaking their head, "You're nuts." But when there is a careful examination of writings by prominent authors of this century, pieces of the puzzle certainly do fall into place - pieces which support the contention that there are certain individuals, if not entire governments, who have implemented a program of global genocide in an effort to salvage and corner "resources"."
Have extracted the above from THINNING OUT THE USELESS EATER. It is germane to the following letter (embellished as usual) which provides good fodder for thought.
Unfortunately not much can be done unless some sort of pain factor is introduced. Most are kept busy "barefoot and pregnant" as it were. Mass dissidence primarily by the intellectual community is needed. Unfortunately they are so easily bought, else we should not be in this mess, and will continue to do the bidding of the controllers totally oblivious to the fact that they are next in line in the gravy train!
Extracted from: The Machinations Of The New World Order - The Farmer
Chris Gupta
--------------------
The political avoidance of clean energy may not be the expedient option .
Andrew Michrowski
------------Date: November 5, 2006 0:43:59 EST (CA)
To: letters@thecitizen.canwest.com
Subject: "population reduction" -- or change of paradigm?
Some people have been arguing in their letters to the editor (e.g. C. Humphrey's "Fuel for thought" on November 4th) that because the high consumption of fossil fuels threatens climate stability, "therefore" we have to reduce the human population. To me, this is a "non sequitur" in logic. The second does not necessarily follow from the first; it is only made to appear so because no other options are considered by these letter-writers. And narrowing down the choice in that way opens a big can of worms, such as the methods to be employed for "reducing" the population. What's your preference? Nuclear holocaust? Forced sterlizations? Manufactured plagues to wipe out all but a few (preferably some other ethnic group, perhaps)?But if other avenues of thinking are opened up, then we should be able to see that humanity need not go down that suicidal road.
What's needed instead is the long-awaited paradigm shift away from the internal-combustion engine toward alternative approaches to clean energy. But the established business interests and cultural inertia have put the brakes on this for at least half a century. When I sent a letter to the editor a few years ago about hydrogen power, the Citizen editor at the time argued with me by telephone that he didn't know the meaning of some of these terms. I was disgusted that someone in a job which helps to shape public opinion should be so proud of his ignorance and refuse to look up the words, but I did comply with the request to add some definitions. In the end a short version of that letter did appear (Monday 21/10/2002) under the general topic area of Kyoto, though it was alongside a rant by someone in Calgary claiming that Kyoto was fraudulent and a "monstrous crime" -- the oilpatch's view of things.
Continue reading ""Population Reduction" -- Or Change Of Paradigm?"
posted by Chris Gupta on Sunday November 5 2006
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February 21, 2006Solar Power Using An Alloy Film Better Than Silicon
Further to: "Off-The-Grid" Right Now here is some great news. Starting with following two articles - a very interesting technology to follow up on.
..."solar photovoltaic technology can be produced in any desired amount, from a few milliwatts to many megawatts, if so desired. It is not necessary to erect large power stations to serve a community with energy from this technology.
A typical middle-class suburban family needs only about 30 square metres (about the size of a living room) of solar panels to supply all of its electricity needs."..
This highly efficient Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide (CIGS) alloy eclipses Silicon and should finally make solar energy possible.
Here is a collection of scientific literature from NREL on Copper Indium Diselenide (CIS):
Chris Gupta
----------------------------SA solar research eclipses rest of the world
By Willem Steenkamp
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.
Continue reading "Solar Power Using An Alloy Film Better Than Silicon"
posted by Chris Gupta on Tuesday February 21 2006
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Trackback link: http://communicationagents.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.r484.cgi/1999
Breakthrough Power:
December 14, 2010Caution About Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL)
May 02, 2007"Population Reduction" -- Or Change Of Paradigm?
November 05, 2006Solar Power Using An Alloy Film Better Than Silicon
February 21, 2006"Off-The-Grid" Right Now
January 24, 2006Communities In Bloom Goes Environmentally To The Dark Side
December 07, 2005Sunlight, Lighting And Your Health (Dangers Of Fluorescent Lighting)
December 06, 2005Battery Recharges in Only One Minute
April 01, 2005Cool: Fridge Without Using Electricity!
April 14, 2004Roots of Medical & Other Monopolies
April 01, 2004Ramifications of Free Energy-Tesla and Others
June 06, 2003
A Person Is Only As Valuable As She Can Be Of Help To Others
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