Solar Possibilities

Nanosolar, founded in 2002, produces 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 that panels may be produced at a rate of several hundred feet per minute at a cost of about 30 cents a watt. Currently, the cheapest solar panels cost about $3 per watt and coal about $1 per watt. The first commercial cells should be produced this year and the first 100,00 cells will be shipped to Europe where a consortium will be building a 1.4 megawatt power plant in 2008-- Popular Science magazine, The New Dawn of Solar, p101-103, December 2007.

Nanosolar is building the world's largest, 140,000 sq. ft., solar cell factory in San Jose, California and the world's largest, 507,000 sq. ft.,  panel-assembly factory in Berlin, Germany. The company is backed by Google and $20 million from the U.S. Dept of Energy.

Environmental News Network article on Nanosolar company, 13 November 2007.