Nanosolar started manufacturing late last year and said that its first cells were destined for a solar park in eastern Germany.
Upstart Nanosolar says that it has built the Ferrari of solar cell manufacturing: a one gigawatt machine that prints solar cells at 100 feet per minute.
In the company blog, CEO Martin Roscheisen on Wednesday said that the one gigawatt machine is a first for the solar industry, orders of magnitude more “capital efficient” than existing production techniques.
Companies like Nanosolar, Miasole, HelioVolt–and now IBM–are developing processes more cost-effective manufacturing techniques to undercut existing technologies.
“This feat is fundamentally enabled through the proprietary nanoparticle ink we have invested so many years developing. It allows us to deliver efficient solar cells (presently up to more than 14 percent) that are simply printed,” he wrote.
Roscheisen said that the secret to Nanosolar technology is that cells are literally printed from a liquid. From his blog:
Nanosolar is one of several companies betting on CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) to lower the price of solar electricity. Compared to traditional silicon, CIGS cells don’t require nearly as much material.
Speed, as well as cell efficiency, are the name of the game when it comes to being competitive.Traditional CIGS manufacturing processes are done in vacuum chambers and are slower.
“Most production tools in the solar industry tend to have 10-30MW in annual production capacity. How is it possible to have a single tool with Gigawatt throughput?