Ecotality Life

Nanosolar– the firm that was awarded $20 million dollars from the Department of Energy as part of the high-profile Solar America Initiative — is delivering on the hopes and expectations of its backers with the sale of the world’s first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product. Here’s how Popular Science described the technology:

“The company produces its PowerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute.”

This is big for many reasons, the greatest of which is that we now have a panel going for the ultra low cost of almost $.99/watt. To put that in perspective, the current lowest thin film module price is at $3.59 per watt! Here are some of the other highlights:

• the world’s first thin-film solar cell with a low-cost back-contact capability
• the world’s highest-current thin-film solar panel – delivering five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today and thus simplifying system deployment
• an intensely systems-optimized product with the lowest balance-of-system cost of any thin-film panel – due to innovations in design we have included.

Nanosolar’s first product went to a freefield deployment in Eastern Germany as part of a solar power plant installation being constructed. The remaining first panels will be submitted to exhibits and museums; with one being offered up on eBay to support charity. This is a pretty exciting news and we look forward to a ramp up in production that will ultimately lead to cheap and efficient solar power for the masses. Congrats to Martin and the crew!

via Nanosolar

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