Cleantech Update

Johanna Solar Technology of Germany is licensing distribution rights for up to 80% of its CIGSSe (copper indium gallium sulfur selenide) thin-film solar modules to aleo solar [ed. all-lowercase correct], also of Germany. Both firms will cooperate in the product launch: aleo will be responsible for product branding, while Johanna Solar will be responsible for technology branding (products will bear the label “made by Johanna”). The agreement is for at least five years. “This agreement opens up excellent sales perspectives for us, so that we can concentrate fully on the imminent start of production,” said JST’s managing director Jeroen Haberland. aleo is to introduce the prototype of the new module in September at the 22nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference in Milan . “We acquired an interest of 19% in Johanna Solar Technology early on [in 2006] in order to ensure our access to this thin film technology,” said Jakobus Smit, chairman of aleo’s management board. Formed in 2001,...

This came out in February of 2006 A few days ago an article appeared in the Cape Argus of South Africa, proclaiming a breakthrough in solar power technology. We could not find a great deal of correlating reports, so will simply relay what what we found from just a few sources. Apparently the technology resulted from over 10 years of research, led by Professor Vivian Alberts of the University of Johannesburg. He and his team seem to have developed a flexible, thin, metal alloy that is “photo-responsive”. This alloy is said to result in panels with are only 5 micron thick (compared to a human hair at 20 microns, and silicon photovoltaic cells at 350 microns.) \ Earlier reports (in 2004) indicated the alloy was copper-indium(gallium)-diselenide (CIGS), with another article inferring the panels would have a useful life of about 20 years, with the energy in fabricating them recovered within the first 1-2 years of operation. And that the materials used could all be later recycled to ma...