I will try and keep y’all posted on exciting new green technologies as best I can…
I recently discovered a new solar technology that will revolutionalize the building industry in the relatively near future. It’s called Nanosolar and they have discovered a way to produce a ‘solar film’.
They start with a thin reflective sheet of polymer and print CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-selenium) using machines that look like printing presses. This process eliminates using expensive silicon (used in traditional ‘wafer’ panels) and will cost an estimated 1/5 to 1/10 the cost of other panels. Other benefits include increased usability… the products can be transparently integrated into roofs, walls and other surfaces. Thus, more surface area can be covered. This new technology however isn’t as efficient in harvesting the sun’s energy as traditional crystalline solar cells, but thin-film is improving quickly.
Nanosolar is extremely ambitious with its revolutionary product. They stated on their website that their revenue aspiration is to be the fastest company ever to go from $1 to $1 billion; and to sell $100 billion in PV panels by 2020….. Word. They are also planning on taking on megacompanies like Sharp and BP, and are being invested in by the founders of Google…. Looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of Nanosolar in the near future!
-j
