Revolutionary solar cell design innovations are now going into mass production. Cheap and efficient solar power is becoming a reality.
The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity.
The manufacturer's claims are stunning.
- 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
The first application is planned for a power plant in Germany, but the great promise of these solar cells is their universality.
The technology is particularly exciting because it can be used nearly everywhere. "You are talking about printing rolls of the stuff, printing it on garages, anywhere you want it. It really is a big deal in terms of altering the way we think about solar," said Dan Kamman, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.
Unlike industrial scale power plants, which take years to design, approve and build, solar power can go on line quickly.
"Our first solar panels will be used in a solar power station in Germany," said Erik Oldekop, Nanosolar's manager in Switzerland. "We aim to produce the panels for 99 cents [50p] a watt, which is comparable to the price of electricity generated from coal. We cannot disclose our exact figures yet as we are a private company but we can bring it down to that level. That is the vision we are aiming at."
He added that the first panels the company was producing were aimed for large- scale power plants rather than for homeowners, and that the cost benefits would be in the speed that the technology could be deployed. "We are aiming to make solar power stations up to 10MW in size. They can be up and running in six to nine months compared to 10 years or more for coal-powered stations and 15 years for nuclear plants. Solar can be deployed very quickly," said Oldekop.
Solar powered homes are already being designed with existing solar cells. Adam Siegel and I met unexpectedly this fall on the Mall at the "Solar Decathalon". We were impressed with the beauty and practicality of the homes. The only regrets we had were that we were not allowed more time by the organizers to go inside and inspect the model solar homes. I would have liked to have seen the third place winning home from Santa Clara University.
The University of Maryland built a home designed for the Chesapeake Bay region that integrated solar power with open natural lighting and a stunning modern design. They also incorporated a newly patented system they had developed using a hygroscopic salt to control humidity using solar energy. The humidity control system combined engineering with art. I would happily buy it for my home in North Carolina.
The most innovative feature of the Maryland house may be the indoor waterfall—a liquid desiccant wall system that's used to control humidity. As far as the team knows, such a system has never been used for a home.
Solar cell efficiency has improved greatly over the past decade before this breakthrough, reaching over 24%. If Nanosolar Corporation faces setbacks, competitors will soon be ready to step in with their new products. Solar power is rapidly moving from being a dream of environmentalists to being a practical source of both large-scale and small-scale power.
Update
Devilstower's Diary on NY Times article re: Nanosolar Corp on 18Dec07.