This a is very interesting technology. Hopefully we can see massive price drops in solar panel costs very soon. These basically roll of a printing press. 100 times thinner than normal cells, and 100 times faster and cheaper production.

They have a conversion efficiency of around 6.5%. However, they have a theoretical efficiency of 19.5%, so it'll increase as the technology matures. even at 6.5% efficiency, they are still very cost effective.



NANOSOLAR WHITE PAPER: HERE.. Right click, save As.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanosolar
http://www.nanosolar.com/products.htm

Nanosolar is currently opening 4 factories in the US. These are funded by bigtimers like the Google guys.

Nanosolar's German thin-film solar plant will be located in Luckenwalde, a town south of Berlin, according to a Gunther Portfolio post, which also has photos of the site.



The company, which is developing a solar technology using copper-indium-gallium-diselenide instead of silicon, last year closed a $75 million Series-C round of funding and said the money, combined with government subsidies, would add up to $100 million.

Nanosolar said it was building a 430-megawatt plant in San Jose, expected to be completed this year, and another factory, which would assemble more than 1 million solar panels annually, near Berlin.

CEO Martin Roscheisen confirmed Tuesday that preparatory work has begun on the German site. The Luckenwalde facility, expected to begin making panels in the first quarter of next year, will be able to make "multi-100" megawatts of solar panels annually once it's fully ramped up, he said.

Nanosolar Update - First Panels Now Shipping at 90c p/watt

I would think that the first customer for this product would be the factories where the product is being produced. If these panels can produce electricity cheaper than coal than the best incentive to buy would be that they are reducing the cost of manufacturing them in the first place. The best demonstration of these panels would be producing power to manufacture future panels.

The first panels are being installed in Germany, because of favorable government incentives. Smart policy for the Germans, they got the first panel assembly plant as a result...

You know, I've been watching NanoSolar in the news now for about a year and I'm a little curious. Why aren't panels available to the public yet. They should have been able to run off material for those German power plant panels in a few minutes. What's the freak'n hold up? Hey, I want to hurry up and get my panels. These guys seem to be a little weak on their sales end.

I have a feeling they are having reliability issues, or the panels aren't performing as they should.

i agree

Re: Nanosolar"s consumer products, their CEO said he would have some good news for homeowners by end 2009.

All new products have a steep learning curve during initial production and problems will appear, Nanosolar wisely decided to work out any bugs by selling initially only to utility scale projects.

Professionals and corporations are used to dealing with and solving early days issues, consumers on the other hand complain bitterly if something fails, this can saddle an otherwise excellent product with a bad product reputation, I hope this answers your question.

Scientia Non Domus
(Knowledge has No Home)

Antiguajohn

i heard that one company called PrimeStar Solar form Golden Colorado are also venturing into nano solar panels..any body knows about them?

Nope, first time i hear of them, but i had a look on their website and their cells aren't exactly like Nanosolar cells. They are very similar to amorphous solar cells, which are cheap, and this company supposedly has ways to produce them on a very large scale.
Amorphous cells are made in high vacuum environments where thin deposits are of silicon, or other semiconductors, are deposited on the surface of the glass.

Nanosolar cells, however, are printed straight onto conductive material, then glassed afterward.

And Firstsolar thin film... any one familiar with them?

and what is the role of Applied Materials in the solar industry?

dont know much about it but i have definitely heard that they are the future replacement for solar panels

SolarOne wrote:This a is very interesting technology. Hopefully we can see massive price drops in solar panel costs very soon. These basically roll of a printing press. 100 times thinner than normal cells, and 100 times faster and cheaper production.

They have a conversion efficiency of around 6.5%. However, they have a theoretical efficiency of 19.5%, so it'll increase as the technology matures. even at 6.5% efficiency, they are still very cost effective.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanosolar
http://www.nanosolar.com/products.htm

yeah this actually a better than ive seen, this is going to be popular to other

NanoSolar Cell White paper for anyone that's interested: