Nanosolar debuts solar panel printing press

US solar cell manufacturer Nanosolar yesterday debuted a new solar cell printing press, which it claims represents the industry's first production tool capable of producing up to one gigawatt of solar cells each year.

Writing on the company's blog alongside a video clip of the new printing press in action, chief executive Martin Roscheisen said that the new approach represented a "major milestone in solar technology", boasting far greater capacity than traditional photovoltaic manufacturing tools that he claimed typically produce between 10 and 30MW of solar cells a year.

"This feat is fundamentally enabled through the proprietary nanoparticle ink we have invested so many years developing," he wrote. "It allows us to deliver efficient solar cells (presently up to more than 14 per cent) that are simply printed."

Roscheisen said that in addition to speeding up production of solar cells, the new printing press will also slash manufacturing costs for the company's copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) cells.

"Printing is a simple, fast, and robust coating process that in particular eliminates the need for expensive high-vacuum chambers, and the kinds of high-vacuum based deposition techniques from industries where there's a lot more $/sqm available for competitive manufacturing cost," he observed.

According to Nanosolar, the 1GW printer cost $1.65m and when operated at a speed of 100 feet-per-minute is two orders of magnitude more capital efficient than a high-vacuum process. "A 20 times slower high-vacuum tool would have cost about 10 times as much per tool," commented Roscheisen, adding that the company also had the potential to run the press faster still, further improving the cost model. "The same coating technique works in principle for speeds up to 2000 feet-per-minute too," he explained. "In fact, it turns out the faster we run, the better the coating!"

Nanosolar, which recently secured $50m in funding from EDF Energies Nouvelles as part of a deal that will also see the company supply the energy giant with solar panels from next year, is one of a number of firms investing heavily in developing thin film solar cells.

Advocates of the technology, claim that the printing press approach coupled with the fact that the CIGS cells do not require expensive silicon mean that the technology represents the best chance of solar panels attaining cost parity with grid energy over the next few years. They also claim that the lightweight and flexible nature of thin film cells provide them with the ability to be deployed in a wide range of different environments, allowing designers to more readily integrate panels into buildings, mobile devices and even textiles.