Nanosolar Snares a Gigawatt in Orders for its Thin-Film Solar Panels

[jpak]

http://blogs.forbes.com/toddwoody/2011/04/28/nanosolar-snares-a-gigawatt-in-orders-for-its-thin-film-solar-panels/

Is thin really back in?

Thin-film solar, that is. Nanosolar announced Thursday that it had signed contracts to supply up to one gigawatt of its thin-film photovoltaic panels to European solar power plant builders over the next three to six years.

Nanosolar is one of several Silicon Valley startups that have attracted billions of dollars in venture capital to develop a thin-film technology called copper indium gallium selenide, or CIGS. Such solar cells use little expensive silicon, the main ingredient of conventional photovoltaic cells.

Thin-film cells can be printed on glass or flexible materials and though they’re less efficient at converting sunlight into electricity, the big pitch was that they can be manufactured at a lower cost. But then came a 50 percent fall in the price of conventional crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules as Chinese manufacturers rapidly ramped up production and many CIGS companies backed off their earlier optimistic projections.

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[Gregorian]

1. Thanks for posting. I've been wondering what Nanosolar was up to.

Things had been quiet. They weren't even letting people in their front door. We tried once.