SOCIAL: nanosolar

[brian kusler]

i got to hang out at nanosolar a couple of months ago while my  
brother was down here (he's an electron microscope engineer)...  
what's so different about nanosolar is that they just went the  
opposite direction of all the other solar companies -- rather than  
trying to wring more energy out of a square meter of roof space by  
boosting the efficiency, they focused on mass production techniques  
and dollars per watt.

the other thing that's really cool about their stuff is that their  
panels have a one month energy payback time. with traditional solar  
panels, it takes about 3 years for them to produce the energy used to  
create them. it's another major environmental win. since all most  
people care about is DOLLAR payback time, it should halve that time  
(to appx 3 years).

when we put panels onto our roof, our HOA was very concerned that we  
not take up more than "our share" of the roof space with our panels,  
in case other units in our building wanted panels of their own. using  
normal Sharp panels, we just barely fit. if nanosolar's were  
significantly less efficient than the 14% rating of the Sharp, we  
wouldn't have had room it.

: b