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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Nanosolar solar modules shipping!

Nanosolar Utility Panel(TM) #2 can be purchased by the highest bidder on eBay.

NANOSOLAR-INC.-PANELS
Nanosolar module array under construction behind the Nanosolar GmbH building in Luckenwalde, Germany. Source: Nanosolar, Inc.

Nanosolar, Inc. made a series of reports that started here with the post, In Search of Nanosolar GmbH, official with the press release Nanosolar Shipping for Megawatt Municipal Power Plant, but the real news is in the Nanosolar Blog with the post permalink Nanosolar Ships First Panels.

Per Nanosolar Chief Executive Officer Martin Roscheisen:

Today we are announcing that we have begun shipping panels for freefield deployment in Eastern Germany and that the first Megawatt of our panels will go into a power plant installation there.

This is the same €2.8 Million reference solar farm project I uncovered during my Nanosolar research and was first reported in the October 13, 2007, article Von der Abfallhalde zur Solaranlage, CDU-Politiker besichtigen Mülldeponie, by Elinor Wenke. Nanosolar partnered with Beck Energy GmbH to win this project with an initial size of 1MWp (MegaWatt-peak) located at a retired landfill in Luckenwalde, Germany.

Mr. Roscheisen goes on to enumerate the disposition of the first three official shipping commercial modules (aka panels):

Panel #1 will remain at Nanosolar for exhibit.
Panel #2 can be purchased by you in an auction on eBay starting today.
Panel #3 has been donated to the Tech Museum in San Jose.

[These are obviously not the first three we ever produced – we have produced loads for testing – but these are the first three of what we consider our commercial panels.]

nansolarebae_1
Nanosolar module photo from the eBay auction.
Source: Nanosolar, Inc.

At first check, Nanosolar Utility Panel #2 had a highest bit of $810 USD. I wonder how much a competitor or intrepid enthusiast will be willing to pay to get their hands on one of these “babies”. A quick check of the Nanosolar Products page reveals this is the only technical datasheet available.

Mr. Roscheisen goes on to list the 5 top defining benefits of Nanosolar modules. This one attracted my attention as new news:

- the world’s highest-current thin-film solar panel – delivering five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today and thus simplifying system deployment;

GUNTHER Portfolio now stands at post number 193. Is it possible to reach the 200 post milestone by the end of 2007? The post run rate over the past few weeks will need to increase.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

in their site, they say:

A high-power, high-current panel, the Nanosolar Utility Panel™ features proprietary cell and panel design innovations that enable our panel product to have an entire factor more power and to carry 5-10 times more current than typical thin-film panels.

Now what does that mean ? Indeed they were able to manufacture a solar panel 10 times more efficient than ordinary thin-films that tipically are in the range of 5-10% of efficiency ? is that at least a 50% efficiency ? how can that be possible ? Multilayered films maybe ?

3:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The current is only 1/2 of the picture. Current is the result of bandgap tuning. The CIGS bandgap is much lower than other ThinFilm products (around 1.12 eV) and so has a higher current. It will also have a lower voltage. The main number to look at is Wattage - the product of current and voltage.

11:53 AM  
Blogger Edgar A. Gunther said...

It's looks as though Nanosolar withdrew the Nanosolar Utility Panel #2 auction???

This listing (150196787450) has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure you entered the right item number.
If the listing was removed by eBay, consider it canceled. Note: Listings that have ended more than 90 days ago will no longer appear on eBay.

10:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Last time we saw this much hype and so little fact was when SiliconValley was selling dot-bombs.

But wait, aren't these the same people that flipped dot-bombs a few years ago???

Please find a peer-reviewed test of a Nanosolar module and tell us all what the efficiency is, what the probable lifetime is, etc. They've been promising for years now, why can't they publish?

11:29 AM  

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