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December 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Google-backed Nanosolar rolls out first set of panels
Even without additional funding from Congress via the recently passes energy bill, the future of solar power is looking bright. As reported the other day in the New York Times, Google-backed solar-panel start-up Nanosolar has started cranking out a new breed of panels that can be manufactured "at a price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal."
The NYT quotes Nansolar's founder and CEO Martin Roscheisen saying, "With a $1-per-watt panel, it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems."
That $2-per-watt figure comes from the Energy Department, the cost of building a new coal plant.
Nansolar's Roscheisen celebrated the milestone in his blog, touting the advantages of Nanosolar's panels over those of competing companies as:
"the world's first printed thin-film solar cell in a commercial panel product; the world's first thin-film solar cell with a low-cost back-contact capability; the world's lowest-cost solar panel -- which we believe will make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as $.99/watt; [and] 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."
Want to get your hands on one of Nansolar's first commercially available panels? The company is selling them on eBay, of course. As I write this, the highest bid is $11,000.
The one of eBay is actually the second panel Nanosolar rolled out. The first will remain at Nanosolar for exhibit, and the third was donated to the Tech Museum in San Jose.
Posted by Ted Samson on December 20, 2007 04:18 PM
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The bidding on ebay for the second PV panel is now over $12,000. The winning bidder has to sign an agreement not to attempt to reverse engineer the product. Also, Nanosolar will only sell panels to electric utility companies. The end user must sign a non-disclosure form and situate the panels in a fenced, secure location. It is obvious that their technology has insufficient patent protection or is not patentable or it would be easy to circumvent their patents. They can't let the cat out of the bag until they have realized a good profit for their investors. On top of that, they are completely sold out through 2008. If you want to put these panels on the roof of your house, don't hold your breath. File this under: "Too Good to be True."
Posted by: Arne P. Ryason at December 21, 2007 07:14 AMHow come everytime anything, from a popstars used panties to the country of Belgium is claimed to be "on sale at ebay", the stuff is never there?
Posted by: Leif Neland at December 25, 2007 12:44 AMActually that's good in a way. Not for Nanosolar maybe, but if it's that easy to do, and that easy to circumvent the patents, maybe we'll see widespread use of distributed solar power sooner rather than later. Unfortunate for Nanosolar, but something the rest of the world desperately needs.
Posted by: John at January 2, 2008 02:49 AMTOP STORIES
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