[dead]

I wish them luck, but I doubt their claims.

[ncountylee]

http://www.nanosolar.com/

[eleni121]

Let's do it. Anything to lessen our dependence on Muslim or anyone else's oil is a good thing.

[Drango]

If anyone believes this, I'll sell you some futures (or calls or whatever they are?)

[Robert A Cook PE]

It might work: Sounds like (right now) ALL they actually have is a (very expensive) prototype, based on old technology that "might work" and PLANS to make a pilot plant to make a demonstration of a prototype manufacturing process.

IF, and ONLY IF, the output from the prototype manufacturing plant works as expected within quality limits expected and within the prices expected at the amounts epxected, THEN they will build a manufacturing plant EXPECTED to be able to make AS MUCH AS 450 MegWatt per year.

...

It is progress, and I will congratulate them on it....

Notice capitalism at work: Si cells are still rare (and expensive), demand is high - so prices are high, and NOBODY has made any money from this new way of building solar cells yet, nor do the new kind of cells have a life-time record of performance yet. They may, for example, fail after a few months or years of exposure.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Acreage, acreage, acreage.

[Boiler Plate]

I believe the US produces about 800 Gigawatts. 430 Megawatts is about half the size of a single nuke plant.

[Rockingham]

The biggest problems will be: durability; the costs of installation and ancillary equipment to make the current usable for general purposes; and whether retrofitting is economically feasible. If so, in five years, the technology will be in wide scale use, and in ten years, it will have a major, potentially transformative economic impact.

Oddly, some of the best gains will be in conjunction with the electric grid and its usual power sources -- oil, coal, nuclear. Wide use of solar power would reduce net demand on the grid and make its generating facilities more efficient. And the off-the-grid market will go mainstream for those willing to make the necessary investments in storage and standby power capacity.

[shield]

bttt

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Interesting. I wish them good luck.

[goldstategop]

I hope it takes off. What it means is a home in California or Florida could be converted to run on solar energy and the investment in an upgrade would be paid back sooner. No more utility company bills!

(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")

[RightWhale]

Megawatts = zero

$ per watt = business

How many $ per watt? $5 has been the going rate for the past two decades.

[OmahaFields]

"make enough solar cells annually to generate 430 megawatts"

One day, these writers/editors will learn the difference between power and energy.

[chaosagent]

Bookmarked

[RoadTest]

We need something. Electricity use increases with every new item invented and every new person born but we haven't built any new power plants since the big rolling blackouts.

Wind, Atomic, anything - let's get it built and producing!

[lafroste]

The company was founded in 2001 and first received seed money in 2003

I sure would like to hear the story of the intervening 2 years. Seed money is the very first capital, what did they do before that? Was it a starving entrepreneur with a dream? I hope he makes 50 zillion dollars.

[ArGee]

Meanwhile, high demand for solar cells worldwide will keep prices high, Roscheisen says.

Maybe AlBore, with the proceeds from his new Academy Award Winning Movie, can subsidize the prices so everyone can afford to put them on the roofs of their houses so BIG ELECTRICITY can stop emitting greenhouse gasses?

I mean, if he truly believes it is a morality issue...

Shalom.

[Myrddin]

Lots of baloney being peddled here. If you simply have a look at the maps of solar energy available to drive solar arrays, you'll quickly find out that there is not sufficient hours of sunlight available to do the job. A tiny fraction of the population lives in the right geographical location to take full advantage of solar energy.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

"Nanosolar also announced this week more than $100 million in funding from various sources, including venture firms and government grants."

There's a sucker born every minute, especially when it ain't their money anyway.

[SuziQ]

Sunshine Ping!