David Savastano, Editor02.22.12
The potential for printing flexible solar cells is of tremendous interest to photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers and end-users. Simply put, the opportunities for low-cost, high production processes for lightweight, flexible solar cells are huge. The challenge has been to improve the efficiencies of the cells.
Photo courtesy of Nanosolar. |
Nanosolar is led by a world-class management team and backed by leading cleantech investors and renewable energy generators, including Benchmark Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Energy Capital Partners, EDF Energies Nouvelles (EDF EN) and AES Solar. Over the years, Nanosolar has drawn the attention of people inside and outside the industry, most notably being named Popular Science’s top Innovation of the Year in 2007, and listed in Time Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of the Year in 2008.
With headquarters and solar cell manufacturing based in San Jose, CA and an automated panel assembly facility outside Berlin, Germany, Nanosolar is building an effective global distribution network to deliver cost-efficient solar power.
“Nanosolar’s mission is to replace fossil fuel-generated power, independent of subsidy programs, through the world's lowest cost solar electricity,” said Eugenia Corrales, Nanosolar’s CEO. “Nanosolar is the thin film cost leader for utility-scale solar installations. We meet this standard by reducing costs both in the production process and in our system or panel design.
As a result, the Nanosolar Utility Panel is designed to reduce installation and balance of system costs; the company expects to surpass the $.60 per watt cost threshold within the next several years.
“Nanosolar's proprietary printing process not only makes it unique among CIGS and thin film companies, but it is also key to the company's ability to meet its low cost goals,” Corrales said. “Printing allows Nanosolar to produce cells with the same level of quality and efficiency as high vacuum deposition manufacturing lines, but with a significantly lower cost of equipment and capital. This also enables Nanosolar to meet the same cost structure as other solar companies but at a much lower volume of production – a cost target that requires gigawatts of production at other companies can be met at only hundreds of megawatts of production at Nanosolar.
“They are bigger, higher voltage, and feature a number of other differences that significantly reduce the number of panels, the people required and the time needed to install a project versus conventional thin film or PV panels,” Corrales added.
Photo courtesy of Nanosolar. |
In 2009, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) independently verified several of Nanosolar’s cell lab foils to be as efficient as 15.3%. In April 2011, Nanosolar announced new efficiency benchmarks of 11.6 percent for the Nanosolar Utility Panel and 13.9 percent for its printed CIGS solar cells, as measured by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (ISE) and NREL. In October 2011, Nanosolar achieved a 17.1% aperture efficiency, which Corrales said is confirmation of the company’s R&D excellence.
“This is continued progress towards our ever-increasing efficiency goals, and demonstrates the advantages inherent in our printing production line,” Corrales said. “Nanosolar can continue to effectively compete with leading thin film efficiencies at a much lower cost than other thin film solar companies. This means that our panel efficiency and low cost production methods, in combination with our unique panel design, give customers a lower total cost of solar electricity.”
Nanosolar’s roll-to-roll printing process allows the company to benefit from the combination of low capital expenditure and high throughput, which results in an extremely low fixed-cost portion of the production cost per watt. This when combined with a panel design that uses less overall materials for production and installation will enable the company to surpass the $0.60 per watt cost threshold within the next several years. Nanosolar reached a nameplate annual production capacity of 115 megawatts by fall 2011.
Nanosolar’s Utility Panels are already in use at military installations, including Camp Perry Ohio National Guard Base in Port Clinton, OH, and will be installed at Camp Roberts California National Guard Base, near Paso Robles, CA, in early 2012. In November 2011, Nanosolar announced its supply of Nanosolar Utility Panels to two separate installations totaling close to 6 MW in partnership with EDF Energies and its U.S. subsidiary enXco.
In April 2011, Nanosolar signed long-term supply agreements for up to one gigawatt of Nanosolar Utility Panel supply with Belectric of Kolitzheim, Germany; EDF EN; and Plain Energy of Munich, Germany.