August 11, 2006—Nanosolar announced in June that it has started executing its plan to build what it says will be the world’s largest solar cell factory, producing a fundamentally less expensive cell. The volume cell production factory will produce a total cell output of approximately 200 million cells per year, and will be located in the San Francisco Bay area.
In addition, the company is building an advanced panel assembly factory designed to produce more than one million solar panels per year. The panel factory, which will produce a broad array of novel product form factors using advanced processes, is expected to be located in Berlin, Germany.
Seed-financed by the founders of Google, the company’s team started pursuing its mission of making solar electricity vastly more affordable in 2002.
After four years of intense commercial research and development, including two years of manufacturing process development and engineering, the company has reportedly delivered on its ambition to produce a fundamentally less expensive, mass-manufacturable solar cell.
“Thin-film printing overcomes the complexity, high cost, and yield and scalability limitations associated with vacuum-based processes. Nanosolar’s technology enables low-cost, high-yield production previously unattainable,” said Chris Eberspacher, Nanosolar’s head of technology. He further noted, “This allows us to produce cells very inexpensively and assemble them into panels that are comparable in efficiency to that of high-volume silicon based PV panels.”
For more information visit Nanosolar.
