Get Google to help fund a company, and there is very little doubt that it will be successful, and that is part of what has made Nanosolar so popular lately as it gets ready to roll a printing press that will put out solar panels that will generate power at around $1 USD per Watt.

Nanosolar has raised over $150 million dollars to produce their solar cell technology which will use a new manufacturing process that actually “prints” photovoltaic material on an aluminum backing. This process is said to help cut manufacturing costs of the basic module by over eighty percent.

The biggest issue that I have with Nanosolar and their technology is that they aren’t giving enough attention to increasing the efficiency of their technology, an issue that many companies are working at tackling. So while Nanosolar’s solar technology will be cheaper than coal, the amount of material you will need to use to power a building will be vast.

I am very hopeful that once they have perfected their printing press system that they will refocus on not only producing the world’s cheapest solar panels, but also some of the most efficient. This combination could set Nanosolar apart from every other solar technology company in the world.

The first panels from Nanosolar are going to be powering a one megawatt solar plant in Germany, on a former landfill. The plant, being developed by Beck Energy, should power upwards of around 400 homes. The second panel is currently on eBay, an interesting place to put the product, and the money made from the winning bid will be used for a charitable cause. The first eighteen months of production have all already been spoken for, with more orders coming in every day. It definitely seems like Nanosolar has a hit on their hands with this technology.

Could Nanosolar’s thin, cheap, aluminum panels be the future of solar technology, or just one of the many options with different specific goals in mind?

One person I talked to mentioned that technology like what Nanosolar is creating could be used in a wide variety of products, projects and places. Would you be interested in having the sidewalk you trek on every day generate solar power for the city you live in?

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