A public-private partnership (PPP) between the Central Energy Fund and the National Empowerment Fund, and private investors, such as petrochemicals giant Sasol and the University of Johannesburg (UJ), has been set up to commercialise superthin solar technology in South Africa, as well as in Germany.

UJ department of physics professor Vivian Alberts said on Monday that Thin Film Solar Technology (TFST) had procured land in the Western Cape to build a facility that will produce thin-film solar modules.

Late last year, the European Investment Bank announced that it had agreed to invest €40-million in the South African plant, which will be located in Paarl.

A €72-million production facility in Bradenburg, Germany, was completed in 2007.

Speaking at the second day of the International Solar Energy Society world congress in Johannesburg, Alberts said that the TFST had obtained a building licence for the Paarl facility, and that it had a clear record of decision from the environmental-impact assessment, which took a year.

Alberts added that new generation sputtering and diffusion equipment has been secured for the facility, and the PPP had an agreement with the German company making the machinery. The machinery would be built and tested in Germany, and shipped to the facility in Paarl.

Alberts said it was important to get production costs below $1/W, and these low production costs made the technology attractive. The matt black look and feel of the thin-film panels also made it attractive in terms of building integrated photovoltaics (PVs).

The technology was researched and developed in South Africa, the patent was filed in 2003, and from 2004 to 2006 an innovation pilot facility was constructed at the UJ.

The R12-million pilot production facility was commissioned in March 2006 and incorporated all critical production steps, but because of limited space, had limited production volumes. Proof of scaleability was proven at the facility in six months.

"The energy balance is a critical issue," said Alberts, and added that the energy payback for TFST was about two to three years, compared with about seven years for crystalline PV panels. The energy balance was the amount of energy required during manufacture related to the amount of energy the module would yield over its lifetime.

Another important issue was the ability to recycle the modules when they would eventually need to be decommissioned. Alberts stated that if the frame was removed and materials were etched from the glass, the glass could be recovered and recycled. The only problem was a cadmium layer, which is placed on the glass, although it is only a nanometre in thickness. Alberts noted that the company was investigating substituting this material.