New Thin-film Solar Cell Coater Reaches 1GW Annual Output

Nice to see them selling and running but what about us residential folks? They said a number of months ago they had it "on the roadmap" but we haven't heard anything at all since!

Cybercat: They're a manufacturer, not a retailer. This means that sometime soon, you'll be able to find their solar panels in your local hardware store, but right now they're doing their best to ramp up production to the point where they can keep product on those shelves.

Yes, remember that businesses are buying megawatts of solar panels at a time. Manufacturers are ramping up to fulfill orders and eventually have enough for retail to us common folk.

And don't get angry with Google and the like buying up the manufacturers capacity. That is what is forcing them to ramp up production which should lower unit cost, eventually. The same thing is happening in wind. Manufacturers are seeing orders many magnitudes higher than they have ever seen. This justifies them building more production capacity. Call it the tipping point in wind and solar production.

Nanosolar uses silicon, an over consumption tipping point resource. I would rather use Heliovolt solar film, and besides, Heliovolt wants to partner with eco villages to manufacture their solar film. For about 40 million you can produce your own solar film from nanofibers of copper, indium, sodder, selinium gelinide. Find the appropriate technology (www.ecosoul.org) that will empower your soon to be eco village. Where you are producing Algae bio diesel as a byproduct of your intergrated system. The founder of Heliovolt is a renegade who wants to see this become a sustainable manufacturing method. I like Heliovolt. Ecosutra.

What makes me a bit skeptical is the following: The Nanosolar-blog (http://www.nanosolar.com/blog3/) states:

"As we are busy ramping our operation, we almost forgot to recognize achieving a major milestone in solar technology".

Who's gonna believe that?

Even more puzzling:
"The same coating technique works in principle for speeds up to 2000 feet-per-minute too. In fact, it turns out the faster we run, the better the coating!"

If that were the case, why don't they run it faster anyway? Why should they produce at a speed of 100 feet per minute, if they can have a better coating running at 2000 feet per minute? Especially because they are sold out for the next few years, as they claim...

>Russell Burns:
>Nanosolar uses silicon, an over consumption tipping point resource.

Um, isn't silicon the second most common element on Earth? I don't think we are going to hit "peak silicon" anytime soon. Some clarification or justification for your statement would be enlightening.

Err, no. Nanosolar uses CIGS, same as Heliovolt and a raft of other thin film startups.

Try to get your facts straight before posting.

@iosef

Since the company is just starting out with commercial production, they would be trying to run at sustainable levels to build up their customer base and reputation. They want to be producing consistent quality cells, reliably and at known rates so they can give their customers what they ask for when they ask for it. There's little point in pushing too hard and delivering poor quality product, or not being able to supply new customers when your production line breaks down from high speed speed teething problems. Walk before you can run. He said the higher speed could be achieved 'in principle', my guess is they are doing R&D work on speeding up the process eventually, which is how they can make tentative claims about future improvements.

Good luck to them, I look forward to buying their products when they come on the market.

Yes I agree. Don't be all doom and gloom about a great development. 1 GW annual production from one production line is not exactly a minor development. More to come no doubt.