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<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Electricity generated from solar panels (aka photovoltaics, or PV) may</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> be about to go thru one of those rare order-of-magnitude paradigm shifts. </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> A new production technology is now coming on line that makes PV</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> cheaper by a power of 10 - as low as 30 cents a watt, </FONT><b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> which makes it</FONT></b></div>
<div><b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> cheaper than coal.</FONT></b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> If this turns out to be for real, it changes everything.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> If you are thinking about buying PV solar panels, you would do well to </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> consider the impact of this potential paradigm shift. </FONT></div>
<div> </div>
<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT><div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Several companies are working on this new technology, and 2 companies</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> are building large scale production plants that are nearly complete.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> "Although the underlying thin-film technology has been around for years, </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Nanosolar has created the actual technology to manufacture and mass </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> produce the solar sheets."</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> "In San Jose, Nanosolar has built what will soon be the world’s</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> largest solar-panel manufacturing facility. CEO Martin Roscheisen</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> claims that once full production starts early next year [2008], it will</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> create 430 megawatts’ worth of solar cells a year—more than the</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> combined total of every other solar plant in the U.S." </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> "This isn't about expensive, slow-to-build silicon panels. Nanosolar</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> has created a new, patented, spray-on film that can be printed on a</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> flexible foil material, and then rolled out on any surface." ... "The</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> company produces its PowerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto thin</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> aluminum foil, so the panels can be made for about a tenth of what</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute."</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> All of Nanosolar's production for the next year is already sold out. </FONT></div>
<div><b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> They plan on selling large amounts to utility companies to </FONT></b></div>
<div><b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> generate electricity wholesale.</FONT></b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> The first 100,000 cells will be shipped </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> to Europe, where a consortium will be building a 1.4-megawatt power </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> plant next year. </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Now this could still fail, but it looks very real. They claim to have</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> prototypes of large scale production techniques running now and</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> their full scale plant online soon.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Still, it will likely take a few years before this becomes widely available </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> (unless some of the other companies that are also working on similar </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> solutions get up to speed soon). </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Brian's link to the environmental impacts of PV is for silicon based PV. </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> One manufacturer says that thin-film "is greener than silicon solar [using] </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> 50 percent less energy to manufacture, start to finish, than conventional </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> silicon crystal solar cells."</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> There are other companies claiming PV breakthroughs too. Hopefully </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> one or more will turn out to be for real. We may see the day where a huge</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> amount of our electric power is PV. Of course, it still won't work at night </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> and work poorly on heavily overcast days, so some other source of energy </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> will still be needed - or a world-wide electric network will have to be built.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> There are Nanosolar skeptics - who point out things like:</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Will they be able to get enough raw materials? </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> The company had a recent high level shake up (the head researcher </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> was forced out). Is this a good or bad omen? </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Another company also thought they had thin-film production </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> problems solved, but they were wrong, and they took a 90 million </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> dollar write off.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Nanosolar won Popular Science's Innovation of the Year award and</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> much of the above text is from their write up at:</FONT></div>
<div> <A HREF="http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Perhaps the best write up is at:</FONT> <A HREF="http://tinyurl.com/2v2ptc"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://tinyurl.com/2v2ptc</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> - Here is the full link...</FONT></div>
<div> <A HREF="http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/23/nanosolars-breakthrough-technology-solar-now-cheaper-than-coal/"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/23/nanosolars-breakthrough-technology-solar-now-cheaper-than-coal/</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Its title: </FONT><b><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> "Nanosolar's Breakthrough - Solar Now Cheaper than Coal" </FONT></b></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> and explains how Nanosolar trumps the many problems that plagued </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> thin-film technology in the past.</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> The companies web site is www.nanosolar.com</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> (It is privately held, so you can't buy stock in it).</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Some other companies/technologies claiming PV breakthroughs include:</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Honda begins thin-film solar production:</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/26285"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/26285</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Miasole thin film:</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.miasole.com/"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.miasole.com/</FONT></A><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Organic thin film:</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/21429"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/21429</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Plastic solar cells:</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/23655"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/23655</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> Power Plastic (R)</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.konarka.com/"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.konarka.com/</FONT></A><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> String Ribbon wafer </FONT> <A HREF="http://www.evergreensolar.com/app/en/home/"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> http://www.evergreensolar.com/app/en/home/</FONT></A></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> (There are others too).</FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> </FONT></div>
<div><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=3> -Rob</FONT></div>
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