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Nanosolar ships 'cheap' solar cells
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 19th December 2007
We're 99% certain that Nanosolar's CEO is more than just a creepy floating head. Probably.
Using a method developed by the firm five years ago which involves printing the cells in a thin film on a back panel, Nanosolar believes that it has finally cracked the main problem preventing commercial exploitation of solar power: cost. The new panels will ship for around 50p ($1 for our American friends) per watt, which compares pretty favourably to traditional energy generation via coal.
The first panel off the production line has been taken aside as a show piece, and the third was donated to the Tech Museum in San Jose. The second panel, however, is being used as a rather odd promotional item: the company is flogging it via online tat bazaar eBay.
If you've a few thousand burning a hole in your pocket, you can get bidding here. Don't expect a fully-working panel though - it's being sold “as-is”, which on eBay usually means “broken.” Not exactly the best advert for Nanosolar's new technology.
The first proper commercial run (hopefully in fully-working form) is due to be installed in a planned megawatt solar farm in Germany.
Hoping to get your house off the grid, or do you think solar power is still too expensive and unreliable for full-scale deployment? Perhaps you're just hoping to get a cheap solar charger for your laptop? Let us know via the forums.
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Comments (15)
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RwD
<A88>
i think it's better to produce super high efficient solar cells, and then use mirror arrays to have higher intensity of light rather than cheap, soon-to-wear-out solar cells
most likely going to take 5-10 years before solar panels become affordable, taken 10 years just to nock off £5000 ish to fit them fully
Don't forget the solar panels have their place too. You can cover the roof tops of the urban sprawl with them. Or you can take them camping to power & recharge your laptop. :)
From the fleabay auction:
"This solar panel is currently in Sellers possession but it will be held in escrow until 6/1/2009 before local pick-up by the winning bidder (or shipment at cost to the winning bidder)."
WTF?
That said even IF they only last 10 years instead of 25 your still saving a crap load from the current tech.
Sure, but that works both ways. When you are generating more power than you need you provide someone elses backup power. In theory, this could work very well, when you are running an excess of power you sell it to the grid and when you run a deficit you buy it from the grid. The grid managemnt company charges a small spread on the buy/sell prices to cover maintainence and also handles transmission from conventional plants needed to make up for large consumers. The technology for this kind of distribution currently exists, what's lacking is suitable microgenerators.