DEC 19

sweet! which metals are they using and where are those mined from, and in which state are those materials processed?

cheers ;D

Where's the manufacturing plant?

The latest is in San Jose, California

Another massive on is in Berlin

About time! When do you anticipate NanoSolar panels being available for residential use? by finally making PV there is bound to be a massive, positive impact on the environment. I cant wait!

is it what we call CIS (Copper Indium di-Selenide)?

I agree that this is terrific news. I offer a big round of applause and wish them so much success that they get no sleep for the next five years and have to continually expand their factory.

However, demand for solar is growing so quickly that it is outstripping supply, so prices for end users are unlikely to come down anytime soon. Just because someone CAN make something cheaply doesn't mean you can buy it at that price if others are willing to pay more. Check out solarbuzz.com to see that solar prices have increased in the past few years due to supply/demand issues.

I wish them every success and commend the German government/power plant for their belief and commitment to NanoSolar - the decision to go with NanoSolar must have been quite a tough one.
$1 per watt is very promising - especially as oil isn't going to get much cheaper and coal isn't going to get much cleaner...

I feel that this technology is a much better option than the off shore windfarms the uk govenrment is purposing.

I would definatley pay to get my roof hooked up with solar panels. The only advantage windfarms have is that they work equally well day or night with enough wind.

If countries are serious about going solar we need to be able to store excess power ready for use in peak times though.

Would using excess electricity to produce hydrogen for use in industrial fuel cells to turn by to electricity at peak times work?

I need to get these to make into tiles for my roof, how durable are they? Lets get them in wallmart.

High voltage direct current between countries may be another option to having to store the solar excess. Grid the planet :)

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/f...em_59.html

Nice article with a couple links....

I can't find any info on their efficiency, but based on the size of the panels, it can't be that much worse than standard panels.

if these prices turn out to be true then they are going to be selling them as fast as they make them for some time. I see a couple more plants in their near-term future. of course, their primary competitor is not the price of oil, but coal. and if they are anywhere near the price of coal-generated electricity, as they seem to be, then utilities and governments have tremendous incentive to create solar electricity plants rather than coal plants. And that is aside from global warming concerns.

This information is so sweet! :D I'd love to have them on my house-we defianately need them around where I live. We need to get them popular! I wonder how durable they are....this will make a massive impact I'm sure, especially if their more easily priced for those who couldn't by the more expensive ones. Can't wait till their able for residential use!

Super news. I wish there were more goverment support when comes to solar technology. I wish those come to daily use soon!

It should be noted that Sharp plans to build the world's largest solar cell plant in Japan, which will also produce thin-film solar cells.
http://www.reuters.com/article...onmentNews

The first 18 months worth of production are completely spoken for. Their first plant is rated for 430MW/yr production and they are opening a 2nd plant in Germany early next year that will have even more capacity. Even with that it will several years before you can order these at Home Depot, I'm afraid.

they just announced the location of their new Plant. Any guesses where? thats right. Austin, Tx.

http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9836003-54.html?tag=newsmap

I want to see a simple residential system that can pull power off a solar roof, split some water, and compress the hydrogen in a tank or store the hydrogen in a fuel cell. This system CAN work and will make our lives MUCH better.

Nano-Solar seems to be a big winner - for commercial applications that is. Unless your house is the 30k 2' module enjoyed by our own Nobel Piece prize winning Al Gore, chances are your roof just can't accomodate the amount of thin film it'l take to displace the silicon cells we use now.

nanosolar is great great news, but so is HHO electrolysed straight from water. No need to store hydrogen when it is available at a switch of a button!Take a look at this company Epoch Technology Corp in Taiwan, they have produced various HHO generators for several applications, it seems Japan are very keen. ;D

We will soon use alternative energy considering that oil reserves are getting poorer by day. Water, wind and sun energy will be used more then anything else. People already use solar panels on their houses to heat water without consuming electricity.

These sound great, but how long before I could actually buy them. In the mean time I need solar now, as I live off the grid and gas keeps going up.

I can cover my roof with these at a dollar a watt but just how many watts will it yield. If I can only put 100 watts on my roof at 200 dollars great but that's not going to solve my electricity problems. Before I get excited I need to see the numbers. It's already been stated that efficiencies are less then silicon based solar. WE need to know how many watts per set measurement before we get crazy about this. In the end it can be argued that this technology can be placed anywhere from roofs to shingles but imagine the complexity involved in harvesting and installing this kind of system as opposed to other technologies. I’m all ears.

Well isn't that typical, someone starts producing something affordable and within the financial grasp of the general public and we're told sorry all the big corporations have swooped in and put a strangle hold on any units produced for years. It'll be a decade before you can buy any, until them you can keep paying those high prices to those same corporations, leave a message at the beep and we'll call you back if GE has not bought us out before then. BEEP. No wonder I've been having trouble trying to find anyone that sells these. The bottom line is that solar still does not quite pay for it's self when considering power company rates vs. FULL LIFE CYCLE COSTS over the long haul. The day it does I hope I can buy a system. Sounds like that may be a dream only realized by my grandchildren (which have yet to be born or even thought of). I wish there was as stream near my property A water wheel and a generator (maybe two) and I'd be happy! I'm all ears too...

Hola soy de la ciudad de Panamà, y navegando por internt, vi su producto de energia solar varata, que puedo hacer para que ustedes que son fabricante de este producto lo pueda adquirir para que yo lo pueda vender en mi pais, ya que en areas muy inacsesibles no se cuenta con energia de nigun tipo, les boy a pedir que me contesten en español
Gracias

NanoSolar's website says it will take 10 acres to produce 2 MW. This is about 40,000 square meters. Solar flux is about 1 kW per sq meter (peak) on the earth's surface. This makes the efficiency of the panels about 5%. Of course, 1 kW per sq meter is peak, and most of the day you are getting big losses from the sun angle and the weather, etc., so the average power is likely much lower than the 2 kW cited.

Is 5% good? Still have a big room for improvement i think... But at least there a lot of actions done. Consequences of global warming are pretty scary and its rates are very alarming. So continue improving these things and for sure the threat of climate change will be out in no time.^_^

We really need to know the efficiency to know if they will even be viable for the residentiol market. 5% just won't cut it if that is the true efficiency. I've read around quite a bit and from everything I've read it looks like 10-12%....hopefully. At that level an averare house without a lot of shade would be able to produce more energy than it could use. So long as it's not a massive energy hog.

I read the efficiency was 14.1 percent.

Solar (and wind) is here since you can see the dirty air, global warming is probably real, the rising costs for oil and gas, pollution from transporting it (oil spills), and terrorism.
In 1950 it was $10,000/watt for PV electric
and extremely expensive now down to $2.00 to
$3.00/watt. By 2010 PV will be like the computer Internet and on every home with $1.00/watt projected to be the cost for thin film, infrared spectrem used, rising electrical power costs for steam power plants, and desire for clean air.
Conservation (skylites, florescent lights, LED lights, energy efficient refrigerators) and electrical storeage (SEMS and VRB technology) will also allow solar and wind to flurish.
Solar and wind will not make it unless you have conservation and storeage available.

Richard M.

Here we are a year later and it seems as though NOTHING changed!
How's that solar plant in Germany going?
It's a shame we cannot find a place in this country for one. I know, cover New Mexico and see if you make enough power for Phoenix.
Time for a follow up story, or maybe something on 60 Minutes.

It seems to me there are many very powerful people who are doing everything they can to stifle the development of Solar Power. I REMEMBER '73 and the power crunch, the spawn of alternative power, electric cars, solar panels etc, Jimmy Carters push for renewable energy to get away from Middle Eastern oil and yet we are STILL slaughtering people for their oil under the rubrics of Democracy, National Security, peace etc. It is easy to figure out who has been behind this, it's the ones who have been getting filthy rich on Corporate Welfare and high fuel prices. This is nothing less than Treason. But we will sit on our asses while corporations become Monopolies, flood Washington with Lobbyists, send your sons & daughters to die on the next wild-WMDs chase, ship more of our jobs off to foreign countries and pretend to do something about Mexican Nationals Invading America. While the Corrupt Conservative Corporate Media Monopoly tell you it's all the Liberals fault, you know, those dirty lazy hippies who want to respect earth, stop Pollution, Preserve Nature, singing "Make Love not War". These same people who tell you how "Glorious" War is while they slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people with their wonderful new weapons paid for by your taxes. The same people who trashed our Public Transit systems across America.

As citizens of America we need to take back our Government, our Commons

Carter Tried To Stop Bush's Energy Disasters - 28 Years Ago
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0503-22.htm

General Motors' Destruction of California Transit Systems http://www.trainweb.org/mts/ctc/ctc06.html

ahhh I feel better now, I just had to rant a little. hope its not too much.

Us redneck hillbillys pay taxes as well, just because you make love to trees,chickens and rabbits don't mean we don't have the right to cut the trees to build your house,pluck the feathers for your pillows and shoot the rabbits for you to eat when you stop by our country style resturant's even us hillbilly's want cheaper energy,but I also want to have the right to drive a 500 hp chev. camaro to go look at solar panels if I choose to. Don't F--- up a good chat about solar cells by starting up about politics and ruin it for the 49 -51 percent of people that may not agree with your political view.
Even a low life hard working redneck should not have to read your personal political views while trying to get informed on new solar tech.
Besides if you can show me one CONG. or SEN. in either party that is not filthy rich after getting elected within 4 yrs ill vote for that one anytime dont care what party!! unless he-she wants my guns Good day

Although technically, it's possible to print them at home, if you can get your hands on the materials, the setup may be complicated and you still need to have the driver software and/or configuration that will overlay the inks in the proper timing and sequence. Once you have all of that, (and rest assured, there are some who want to keep that information, the materials and the software in the commercial realm,) you may be able to actually print your own solar cells. However, the way these things typically play themselves out is that they end up either bought out and shelved or turned into another brand of expensive panels, with the producers pocketing even higher profits than they already get. Until it all becomes "open-source", photovoltaics will remain expensive and with the increased focus on green energy, will continue to experience higher demand and therefore rising prices. Those of you who truly want to break that cycle and who have the scientific ability should focus on coming up with a safe new technology that we can all use, by making it from cheap and readily available materials, using cheap and readily available equipment. Inkjet printing is ideal, but virgin unfilled ink cartridges are needed, and the inks need to be easily produced and put into the cartridges at home. Ideally, no baking should be required either, save that which it will experience under the sun.