Solar power for the cost of coal???

[Scrooge McSam]

Nanosolar says they can do it.

From New York Times article...

Nanosolar’s founder and chief executive, Martin Roscheisen, claims to be the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. That is the price at which solar energy becomes less expensive than coal.

“With a $1-per-watt panel,” he said, “it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems.”

According to the Energy Department, building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.

They've redesigned the entire manufacturing process. No more piecing together individual cells. They're printing the circuitry directly onto the substrate.

The company, which has raised $150 million and built a 200,000-square-foot factory here, is developing a new manufacturing process that “prints” photovoltaic material on aluminum backing, a process the company says will reduce the manufacturing cost of the basic photovoltaic module by more than 80 percent.

The Nanosolar website has lots of into on the process. Also says their entire output for the next year is already sold (dammit).

Check em out

[tracilicious]

Yeah! Big for alternative energy!

[Alex]

Good luck to them, but I'll believe it when I see someone install it on a large scale because it makes economic sense and not because it was subsidized.

I'm not that old and I've already seen too many major manufacturing breakthroughs fail to have the impact claimed in the early press releases.

But if it really works, then really cool.

[Scrooge McSam]

Yeah, the website mentions the plant they're building in Germany but no details on how it's financed.

I do love the idea of solar panels rolling out of a printer.

[Stan4dSteph]

Yes, it's pretty cool technology. GE invested in another thin-film solar company recently.