wrote
I'm about to buy some solar panels to keep my batteries charged.
There are some new type panels being discussed here and there but so
far they seem to be vapour ware and 'light' years away. Should I wait
for something new on the market or by now?

Do you mean this sort of thing: http://www.nanosolar.com/products.htm? The
way Don Rumsfeld and I see it, if you want solar panels right now, you're
going to have to go to sea with the solar panels you can buy, not the solar
panels you wish you could buy.