COMPANY: Nanosolar

Overview
Nanosolar is a privately held company founded in 2001 in Palo Alto, CA with an aim to set the standard in solar power for cost, versatility, and availability. With all the attention currently being given to global warming and oil costs, cleantech is begninning to be seen in venture communities as a viable and potentially very lucrative market - one that Nanosolar hopes to play an important part in. Solar power has been a classicly sited source of green energy for 50 years, but cost inefficiencies have long served as the major barrier to entry into the mainstream of energy. Nanosolar is currently poised to break this barrier with their system of "printing" solar panels onto metal sheets at a fraction of the cost of other current solar panel manufacturing methods. Nanosolar has received over $100M in financing, awards from Red Herring magazine, SmallTimes, and DARPA, and is constructing a plant in San Jose capable of powering 300,000 homes annually.

Nanosolar.com

Technology
Nanosolar uses a semiconductor material composed of copper, indium, gallium, and diselenide (CIGS) known to be useful as an efficient photovoltaic cell. Photovoltaic cells are cells that convert light energy into electrical energy and serve as the foundation for modern solar power. Nanosolar's major innovation is their ability to print these cells onto thin flexible surfaces on a large scale much as a printer prints ink onto paper. Nanosolar's ability to print these CIGS relies on patented methods of structuring the nanosized components of this solar "ink" such that each ink droplet contains the perfect ratio and arrangement for efficient photovoltaic function. This innovation has allowed Nanosolar to manufacture solar panels at a small cost and in a highly scalable manner. See my post on nanolithography as a good a pen and paper analogy to Nanosolar's printing techniques. The key innovation here is the structuring of ink droplets - after this step, the printing process is very simple.

Products
Nanosolar PowerSheet™- These are Nanosolar's panels to be made available to the general public. They will be made available in 2007.

Nanosolar SolarPly™- The SolarPly is created for commercial buildings and, due to its durability and flexibility, can act as a large area "carpet" on these buildings.

Nanosolar Utiliscale™- The Utiliscale is specifically designed for large-scale ground-mounted plant installations.

News
12.12.2006- Nanosolar secures a 647,000 square foot site for the construction of their solar plant in San Jose.

6.21.2006- Nanosolar closes a series C round of financing at over $75M led by Mohr Davidow Ventures and Benchmark Capital.

6.13.2005- Nanosolar closes a $37M series B round of financing led by Mohr Davidow Ventures and previous backer, Benchmark Capital.

8.20.2004- Nanosolar receives a $10.3M contract from DARPA to research and develop their thin film solar panel technology.

Collaborations
8.24.2006- Nanosolar and Conergy sign an agreement to develop their solar panels at a large scale. Conergy brings their expertise in integrating state-of-the-art components to the collaboration.