Will build R900m thin-solar panel plant in Paarl with CEF.

Sasol (JSE:SOL) and the Central Energy Fund (CEF) are to proceed with a R900m plant to manufacture thin film solar panels at Paarl late in 2012.

The thin-film panels based on technology developed by Professor Vivian Alberts of the University of Johannesburg, are a major departure and a big improvement on conventional silicon-based rivals.

They will be more efficient in extracting electricity from the sun and cheaper and easier to produce. Because they are thinner than a human hair and flexible, they will have many practical advantages as well.

This confirms a Moneyweb story published on February 1.

The new plant will be owned 45% by the Central Energy Fund, 45% by Sasol, 6.1% by the National Empowerment Fund and 3.9% by the University of Johannesburg's intellectual property company PGIP.

Raoul Goosen, technical manager of CEF, confirmed that the go-ahead of this private-public partnership had been approved in principle.

He told Moneyweb: "As soon as equipment guarantees have been signed, work will begin. The plant should be operational in 2012."

The new company acquired a factory at Paarl from Venfin, which was an early partner but withdrew because of its involvement in Johanna Technologies, a German firm doing similar work. Johanna and the new company will compete globally.

The capital investment will be €80m. Half of the amount will be shareholders' equity and the other half finance from the European Investment Bank

The plant will produce 500 000 thin-film photo-voltaic panels a year with an output of 40MW. A German supplier will install an advanced furnace

Goosen said the thin film panels could be backed by glass or flexible steel. While a thin-film solar panel extracts only 7% of the electricity in sunshine, Professor Alberts' panel produces 16% of the sun power hitting the panel.

The partners say potential for solar energy is huge, particularly in SA, which enjoys much sunshine. The market in SA is small (about 5MW a year) but SA producers import silicon cells and have a local content of only 15%. The global market is large (7000MW) and growing at 40% pa.

The partners foresee their panels being used is telecoms off-grid tourist and leisure resorts, rural schools and clinics. There is also an on-grid demand for standby power.

The new plant can be expanded to produce more than 200MW. It hopes to become an export earner.

Currently photo-voltaic electricity costs more than Eskom grid power but while Eskom's costs shoot the lights out, the cost of solar power is declining every year.

Solar generates a lot more jobs than current coal technology (35 jobs per MW, compared to 1.7 with coal.) The local content of the thin film solar plant will be 70%, which is way higher than with coal-generation plants.

Write to David Carte: davidcarte@moneyweb.co.za

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Will cost benefits be passed on to SA consumers? This could be a huge boost for all looking to move away from reliance on eskom. Anyone know what the cost is per sq metre of currently available thin-film panels? by Excited on November 02 2009, 08:30 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

The quoted cost of production is not cheap. If that is the factory cost, then the retail cost not be less than existing solar panels. by VB on November 02 2009, 09:11 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

How to store the electricity The storage of solar power remains a massive problem. A huge array of batteries will be required to power an ordinary family house. Batteries do have a limited shelf life, so there will be a continuous capital outlay required to replace . .more them. The efficiency of solar panels depends on the amount of sunlight available, which means much less electricity on a rainy or overcast day. . .less by rex on November 02 2009, 09:26 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Bravo so nice to see a story that addresses real issues of a better life, and incorporates brains,development and economic sense.Thank you, and good luck by OPtimist on November 02 2009, 09:33 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@ Rex- Exactly Correct. To install sufficient pv panels to produce an amount of enery equal to the amount instantly and always, available through the wires, (say 10 to 15 kva,) would probably collapse your roof and your your bank balance. Remember,also that . .more you require power at night and to store that amount in banks of huge lead-acid batteries plus adequate inversion equip. is, in fact so expensive and so impractical as to be completely out of the question. Even at four times its present price, Escom power is still 'for free'.( relative to generating it yourself.) Solar water heating makes good sense though. . .less by Voortrekker on November 02 2009, 10:08 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Decentralised grid US last week announced they were putting money into a decentralised grid. That being properties and businesses can "generate" their own electricity and pump this back into the grid (at a price) during peak times. This is a pure dream in africa, but . .more should be the strategy considering our eskom problems. Yes the storage is an issue, but there is alot of research being done in this area, most of it in Japan with the car producers and some in the US with GM. If we get the storage right, then the incentive is there. Nano Solar can currently print off panels using printing presses, rolls out like paper. Google supplies 30% of their power needs from 9000 panels on their roof and they have just entered the Solar Panel Research sphere. Exciting times. . .less by CTIA on November 02 2009, 11:14 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

BATTERIES THE KILLER As said by Rex and Voortrekker batteries will kill the financial benefits of this project. It would if reliability is your biggest criteria but not if it is cost. A good deep cycle battery can be cycled (charged and discharged) around 2500 times. A . .more battery like this will set you back R1000/100Ahr and you will need quite a few if you want to power the average house. That is excluding anything with an element such as a stove/geyser which is a no-no for solar electricity. The same will apply to the Joule electric car. The estimated R1500/mth lease on the batteries will kill it. Even if diesel cost R20/liter it you would be able to drive around 1500 km/mth on the R1500 if you buy a diesel Polo or similar. And you will not be confined to the 300km range on a charge. . .less by SP on November 02 2009, 11:27 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Cost Voortrekker, you seem to know the numbers. I have heard that 35sqm to generate about 40Kwh per day would cost about R160k. Does that sound right ? by DJ on November 02 2009, 11:33 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

They know little about Electricity, Television, Airplanes, Telephones now they want to try Solar How stupid is this? Another disaster coming that is for sure. Viva BEE. by wrong people on November 02 2009, 11:57 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@ CTIA http://www.nanosolar.com/ Thanks,- truly mind-blowing technology round the corner for sure. by Voortrekker on November 02 2009, 11:58 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Finally A few years ago now I spoke to the Proff about this and it seems it took quite a while to navigate a commercial way forward. Power to Sasol and the CEF for making this go forward. I am afraid that the time it takes SA enterprised to get ideas up an . .more running is far far too long.....USA and Europe have much smaller lead times from concept to implementation and this is one of major reasons we struggle to compete. By the time we arrive they are already established businesses. . .less by SavageIntent. on November 02 2009, 12:18 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

@DJ I'm not an expert but that sounds about right,- using rigid heavy current products that is. But there's a huge amount of dirt cheap stuff available ex-China, If you are able to import and install and take the risk yourself. I reckon stick . .more around for a while ,( check the site in my posting above), the stuff coming down the line is unbelievable,( and a tenth of the cost they say !)http://www.celsias.com/article/nanosolars-breakthrough-technology-solar-now-cheap/ . .less by Voortrekker on November 02 2009, 12:59 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Batteries this is the battery company I have been following in the US, they making serious progress in the efficient storage area. predominately they working with car batteries, but this can be expanded. They getting alot of funding from GE, google and state . .more initiatives. I think their IPO was finalised last month. http://www.a123systems.com . .less by CTIFA on November 02 2009, 13:12 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Highly cost effective to use the prof and his students who contributed this project at the academic pittance they received. What's in it for them? by CostEffective on November 02 2009, 15:03 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Batteries For households the cost of solar energy is still high, but for municipal enterprises there might be benefits. Streetlights, traffic robots, speedtraps, etc. Rural areas can now have electricity. Telecom substations will have low maintenance power . .more source. At least the education department and teachers will have no excuses of lack of educational tools. . .less by Observer on November 02 2009, 15:20 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

About Time At long last, if you see what Elon Musk has done in the US, with Solar City, he installs panels onto a clients roof, generates electricity, feeds via an inverter to the DB box, if the household doesn't use all the electricity generated, it is fed . .more into the local grid, and the household gets a credit from the Municipality. We could create many jobs, getting small business to install solar systems around the country, even in the rural areas. Only problem is no BIG contracts for our 'OFFICIALS' to line their pockets with. . .less by Solar Fan on November 02 2009, 16:05 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Simple Answers Well done to Sasol. Another simple answer to one of South Africa's big problem, energy. Another simple answer to this problem is daylight saving, why can't our minister of minerals and energy understand that daylight saving can only do good for this . .more country. . .less by True African on November 02 2009, 16:12 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Thanks Thanks Voortrekker. Will check out the links. Voorspoed. by DJ on November 02 2009, 16:54 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

China plant Plant in China and Germany using the same technology from Alberts - we will not be able to compete on the world market. I think it will be cheaper to import the same product from China. by China plant on November 02 2009, 17:33 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Why the long long time from the first announcement until this point? Why can't we get solar panels from Germany? What is the marginal cost of production? Given the electricity supply problems South Africa is experiencing surely if the panels are going to be prohibitively expensive but yet cheap to produce compulsory . .more licences should be issued for South Africa only? Surely given the cost to our economy of the blackouts this ought not to be a problem to UJ? What is the deal with Nanosolar? This company seems to be claiming that it has the real deal without any acknowledgement that it is using a licence if it in fact is? There are just too many unanswered questions here. . .less by vramaarnet on November 07 2009, 21:21 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Another article Dear David I hear there is new legislation pending re grid tie-in and rebates for the installation of solar power, starting late 2010. Just a rumour or is there truth in this ? Wanna write the article ? Rgds by DJ on November 18 2009, 23:06 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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