new S. African panels - are they for real?

 hey, i've noticed a few reports about a new type of photovoltaic material,
developed in S. Africa.    Is this for real?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/02/south_africa_pi.php  

  Solar Bus Driver wrote:

I don't know if it's any more real than the other three times
it's been brought up in this newsgroup under the topics...

"SA solar research eclipses rest of the world" Feb 23, 2006
"SA breakthrough???" Feb 26,2006
"New thin film solar technology" Jul 24,2006

Anthony

 
Anthony Matonak wrote:


thanks, those are all the same story.  i'm looking for anyone
confirming the accuracy of these stories?  Has it been mentioned in
Solar Today or Home Power?

or is this just another attempt to get people to invest in a new fake
"promising" technology?

 Hi Gary,
It is too early to tell, but I suspect this technology has been
demonstrated in the research lab, and it is a long way from there to
being able to produce large quantities of solar panels. The big problem
is that in the lab a scientest can take all day to grow a centimeter
square cell that may work great. In production you need to scale this
up to large areas and do it rapidly to make it economically feasible.
The engineering details need to be worked out, and that usually
requires many designs to find one that can be scaled up.

Bob B.

garybeck@adelphia.net wrote:

 garybeck@adelphia.net wrote:

I'm not sure that either of those is really the best place to look,
since they don't really do much research news, but it has received ample
coverage in trade magazines like Photon International and Renewable
Energy World, as well as coverage at reputable web sites like
renewableenergyaccess.com and solarbuzz.com.


Well if that's all it is then it was a rousing success -- Aleo Solar is
building a plant to produce the cells. Not sure how big the plant will
be or when they hope to get the cells to market, but someone is
definitely trying to commercialize it.