Nanosolar Ships First Panels

In one of the most significant announcements in renewable energy for the year Nanosolar, producer of CIGS solar cells made using nanoparticle ink and roll-printing technology, announced that it has shipped its first product and received their first check from product revenue. They are already sold out for the next 12 months and are working to scale their production capacity as fast as possible. The advent of low cost thin film cells, that according to Nanosolar will be able to be produced sold for $0.99 per Watt, should mean that low cost solar can be produced at the lowest cost ever and can be produced at sites that are more distributed than from thermal solar. When this cost is achieved, it will mean that solar is competitive with all other forms of power production and only geographical limitations -- lack of sun -- will limit its proliferation -- and of course the problem of storage of energy.  This moves the development of energy storage technologies to the top of the list of priorities for renerwable energy technologies, where it should have been for some time. It has 647,000 sq ft of manufacturing capability in the U.S. and Germany. 430. ,000 Mw of capacity per year in CA according to this CNBC video. Could this be the begining of the end of all other forms of solar power.

In the December 18 Nanosolar Blog Martin Roscheisen, CEO of Nanosolar writes:

Our product is defining in more ways I can enumerate here but includes:

- 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;

- 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;

- an intensely systems-optimized product with the lowest balance-of-system cost of any thin-film panel – due to innovations in design we have included.

Today we are announcing that we have begun shipping panels for freefield deployment in Eastern Germany and that the first Megawatt of our panels will go into a power plant installation there.

Also on December 18th, 2007:

Nanosolar Inc.and Beck Energy, announced that they had won a highly competitive public selection process for a solar power plant located on a former landfill owned by one of the largest waste management companies in Eastern Germany.

The initial size of the plant is 1MW, an amount sufficient to power approximately 400 homes. The Nanosolar Utility Panel™ is Nanosolar's first product as part of its award-winning PowerSheet™ product line – recently named the Top Innovation of the Year 2007 by Popular Science Magazine – and the company's solution for building solar power plants on free fields at the outskirts of towns and cities.

“This is the first time that a solar electricity cell and panel has been designed entirely and specifically for utility-scale power generation," said Martin Roscheisen, CEO of Nanosolar. "It will set the standard for green power generation at utility scale."

Solar-electric power plants have advantages over concentrating solar-thermal plants as well as coal-fired and other conventional plants in that they can be deployed in a much broader range of possible field locations, a much broader range of possible sizes, and with much shorter project planning and implementation cycles. They now can be very economical as well, giving municipal power producers and utilities a new option for generating and delivering cost-efficient green power.

Further Reading:

• Celsais, November 12, 2007 - Nanosolar Breakthrough-Solar Now Cheaper Than Coal
• Popular Science, Nov 12, 2007 - Nanosolar:  Top Innovation of the year 2007

Comments

[DaveMart]

Technofossil,
Apologies- I see that I did not edit my last post properly.
Of course I meant $171 million for 80 MW, working out to around $0.40kwh if amortised over 5 years at an average of 20% of peak watt power.

[Clee]

California has a Solar Rights Act which is supposed to make it illegal for a local government or HOA to prevent you from putting up solar panels based on aesthetics.
http://www.akeena.net/cm/About_Solar_Power/California_Solar_Rights_Act.html

[bigTom]

DaveMart:
I would think a tenyear amortization would make more sense. Most panels are warranted for 25years. If I asume 10% interest and infinite lifetime 10 year amortization would be correct. Drop the interest rate to say 7%, but noninfinite lifetime and ten year is probably not far off. I suspect that Germany gets less than your .20 capacity factor, but a favorable location such as SW US or Spain or Italy and it is probably higher than .2. Still probably $.15 to $.20 a watt in these favorable locations.

[Ronald Brak]

The costs of installing solar panels on current houses are quite high. However, larger installations on commercial and industrial buildings with lots of flat roof space should be significantly cheaper. A large business here can often borrow money at around 8%. This means that if a solar power system needs replacing every 25 years, then in the sunniest two-thirds of Australia it will be profitable if installed costs are $2 a watt or less. And in some populated parts of Australia, a company could make money installing solar power if the installed cost was $2.70 a watt or less.

As government subsidies are available for solar power here, I expect point of use photovoltaics to become quite popular, both on existing buildings with convenient large roof area, and newly built private homes, as installation costs on these structures should not be too high.

[bigTom]

Amortization of 25year panels.

If we assume we get power for exactly 25years, then the present value of a new system is equal to the power produced in Y years. For various interest rates:
10% 9.18years
9% 9.94years
8% 10.81years
7% 11.80years
6% 12.95years
If a savvy investor, such as Warren Buffet saw that he could build systems whose present value exceeds the cost, he would do it. If one is interested in funding a system for purely financial reasons a "payback" time of 10-13 years would seem to be the criteria of merit.

[Carl Hage]

I made a mistake in my calculations reported above-- I assumed 3.5KWh/m2/day solar radiation, but the acual measurements in N. California are about 4.9 for flat, or 5.5 for latitude tilt, or 180/200 KwH/year/m2. (Surprising the angle doesn't matter much.) As DaveMart and bigTom note, without incentives, a 10 year payback comes out very roughly $200/m2 or ~$2/W. The NanoSolar panels (alone) are about $100/m2 - a 10% panel is ~100peak-W/m2.

Suppose the PV films were printed on seamed metal roofing panels. They cost around $75/m2 including installation. The roof panels snap together-- imagine snap-together electrical connections are built into the seam as well. Check out this story/video of installing PV on metal roof panels. Credit $25/m2 for PV panels, and installed PV could be $100+75-25=$150/m2. For a new house/roof, credit $40 for an asphalt roof otherwise installed, and you get $110/m2.

Inverter costs need to come down as well-- grid-tie inverters are expensive-- as much as Nanosolar's panels ($1/W), but inverters built into mass produced battery backups are <$.10/W with the (small) battery.

Assuming future mass production/availability and the avoided cost of traditional roofs, a PV roof could create electricity at $.05/kWh (~$100/m2).

From Clee's comment, I looked up the CA Solar Incentives and realized they changed in 2007 and are changing again to a performance-based incentive derived from the energy produced, rather than installation cost. Seems like a good idea. It's getting complicated with the Renewable Energy Credits as well as kWh credits.

[Slope]

When will this appear on the PEV car roof?

[solfilm]

This was actually a good read, thanks for writing it. :)

[Yachtcharter Griechenland]

Good post, but have you thought about Nanosolar Ships First Panels before?

[Watch Movies]

I'm still puzzled by your using YOUR figures rather than the figures that are publicly available about the Waldpolenz array, including its cost.

[Yacht Charter Greece]

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[Yachtcharter Griechenland]

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[Yacht Charter Greece]

Wow, I never knew that Nanosolar Ships First Panels. That's pretty interesting...

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That's great, I never thought about Nanosolar Ships First Panels like that before.

[Homemade Solar Panels]

I appreciate you taking the time to make this post, incredibly fascinating!

It really is a refreshing change to see somebody else serious about renewable energy! I am surely a fan of renewable energy and love the feeling of knowing I am helping the environment, even if I am just one person! Let's hope a lot more people come around, soon! I use solar panels on the roof and since we reside in Arizona it’s worked out quite well for us and keeps our electric bill down as a great deal as possible -- can’t beat that!

[Lana Madison]

Great Post! This only shows, that slowly but gradually and surely,with the help of the latest technology and the diligent research, Solar Power will be one day, our source of electricity. This will definitely lead to a better world.

[solar collectors]

Solar thermal energy can be collected on a large scale and used to heat a transfer fluid. This fluid can then power a steam turbine that generates electricity. The more complex collectors are generally used in solar power plants where solar heat is used to generate electricity by heating water to produce steam which drives a turbine connected to an electrical generator. The simpler collectors are typically used for supplemental space heating in residential and commercial buildings. A collector is a device for converting the energy in solar radiation into a more usable or storable form

[Kim]

Hi
Solar energy is truly the energy of the future, but there is a gap between the advances already made and the products in the market.

[Rug Cleaning Los Angeles]

I want one, it'd look great on my house. Lol

[dentist west hollywood]

That's amazing that they shipped their first product! Good times!

[SEO Services]

Are they still making these? If they're still as popular they must be selling a bunch!

[Air Purifiers]

Sold out for 12 months? Incredible, this must be a good product.

[Tours in Venice]

Are a lot of people using these panels now?

[furniture stores los angeles]

Are these used a lot now?

[dentist los angeles]

when will these be available to everybody?

[fashion books]

I would love solar panels, still expensive though, right?

[toyota car lease deals los angeles]

Lol, I was hoping this would be about Nanosolar ships- like the link name says!

[backup camera]

Am I able to buy one of these for personal use?

[acting classes los angeles]

Great that it's thin and cheap- in solar panel terms anyway.