Technology Background

Through the R&D activities of the consortium, there are several Solar-based systems that is being offered. In regions such as Asia, Europe and Americas, these products have already been available for more than 5 years in one form or another. Hence the basic scientific principles employed in these engineering products are tried and tested and mature. It is however the novelty in applications that is new and highly innovative.

Furthermore, economies of scale cost of adoption and education and familiarity of the technology has limited the uptake potential in South Africa and Africa.

For example, over the last 2 years Photo voltaic cell technology has reduced over 60% due to increase volumes of production and improved yield in the manufacturing process, hence it has become more cost effective to use solar power. The quality and cost of production for both crystalline and amorphous solar cell technology have reduced substantially, and through our efforts in production efficiency and design optimisation, value analysis and value engineering, we have managed to bring the difference between the two PVT options closer. Furthermore, the end-state applications of solar technology, such as for light has also concurrently improved, for examples the LUX from light emitting diodes have increased over 200% in yielding capacity resulting in LEDs providing more sustainable, high quality light for lower input power.

In order for LEDs to replace fluorescent or incandescent electric lamps in residential lighting, the price needs to be reduced by more than 50 percent, and brightness per watt has to be greater than 120 lumens. In the future, LEDs will be used for lighting sports and leisure facilities, as well as parking lots, public places, and lightscapes where factors such as long lifespan and reduced power consumption are needed.

Most of the LEDs available for lighting are high-output products. Aside from improved radiation intensity, these LEDs feature the same color rendering index (CRI) and correlated color temperature (CCT) as traditional lighting sources. Radiation intensity of traditional incandescent electric lamps is 10-20lumen/W, and that of small fluorescent lamps is 50-60lumen/W. Seoul Semiconductor recently launched a 420-lumen version of its high-output semiconductor lighting. It is environment-friendly, offers reduction in material costs, and is easy to maintain.

This is demonstrated in the table below that compares the standard incandescent globe to the LED employed in our solar lighting solutions.

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