Nanosolar: Toward Solar Cost-Competitiveness

The Nanosolar Corporation, initiated in 2002 by Martin Roscheisen and Brian Sager, had the goal of mass manufacturing medium-efficient solar cells at one-tenth of the cost of traditional, silicon-wafer solar cells. Coming out of an information technology background, Nanosolar founders had such early investors as Google, and backing from such venture capital firms as Sand-Hill-Road venture firms.

Nanosolar has focused on thin-film photovoltaics, bringing costs down primarily through its manufacturing process and use of less expensive materials. In 2003, Nanosolar developed a manufacturing process that relies on print technology, such that a copper based, nano-scale semiconductor (CIGS) is printed like ink (similar to a newpaper printing operation) onto a flexible, metallic background. This development rendered the manufacturing process scalable to mass production.

The metallic background used in the printing process had been stainless steel, which is expensive, and while required for its flexibility and strength, was too expensive to mass produce thin-film pvs on and expect to achieve cost competitiveness. Nanosolar has been able to develop, through its high-volume printing process, a low-cost substrate, replacing stainless steel and cutting the material cost in half.

In 2006, Nanosolar secured $100Million in private capital investment to construct manufacturing plants, one in San Jose, CA, and the other in Luckenwalde, Germany. Total manufacturing space equals 647,000 square feet, and will allow Nanosolar to commence manufacturing thin-film solar panels in multiples of 100MWs annually. Nanosolar is

Mass production of solar cells has long been thought to be the key to cost-competitiveness of solar energy. Nanosolar's production process, inexpensive materials, and mass-production capacity is said to be capable of bringing solar energy into the mainstream, making solar energy competitive with natural gas and peak electricity prices.

For more information on the Nanosolar Corporation, see:

http://www.nanosolar.com/index.html