Home : Blogs : Andrew Stone - EcoBroker® : Green Focus - The real estate blog for changes that just make sense.

NanoSolar - Amazing and cheap solar technology for our future.

I have posted on NanoSolar before. They have put together an amazing technology that will allow a conductive solar material to be printed onto a paper thin sheet of aluminum. The uses are endless and imagine if you will that every building could have a an entire roof made up of solar material at 1/3 the cost of today's solar cells. Very Cool!

The reason I am reposting on NanoSolar now is because they have won Popular Sciences Best of What's New Award for 2007, the Green Tech Grand Award and the Innovation of the Year Award. You can see the article here, watch a slide show here and see an animation of how it works here.

The video below is also very helpful in learning about this exciting new technology.

Posted by Andrew Stone - EcoBroker® on 12/04/2007 04:41 PM

Comments (27)

nanosolar, ecobroker, green utah real estate, solar power, andrew stone realtor

27 Comments on NanoSolar - Amazing and cheap solar technology for our future.

DEC

2007

That's fantastic! I'd love to have solar power at home, but can't afford it!

When will it conduct energy through a foot of snow in cloudy conditions? Michigan has a need for device that can generate power from Snow. Looks like a great invention.

I checked out the slide show...excellent...when will this be available for mass production?

Konnie - They say it could be available at the then of 2008, but I know how these things are. I say 2010. However, they are building the factory, not just talking about it, so perhaps much sooner! According to the website they already have orders.

Terry - Power from snow? That would be wonderful for a lot of us. Imagine!

Wow, could revolutionize our energy industry! Keep us aware of new developments please!!!

Wow very interesting. Thanks for sharing and I believe this si so important.

Wow very interesting. Thanks for sharing and I believe this is so important.

This is great news - we need new sources of energy now.

Jimmy Carter put photovoltaic panels on the roof of the White House, one of Ronald Regan's first acts in office was to remove them.

we have been looking at solar. it is so expensive. i am going to check this out for sure. thanks, trevor

Great interesting post!

Andrew, Thanks I guess I missed your previous post on this. I hope the restore the tax benefits of solar!

With so much energy from the sun it is a shame to not utilize it. I know that it is purposed to be a 1/3 of the cost of conventional solar panel but are they more efficient?

Hi Andrew, we were talking about this in my city's Renewable Energy Group. The Nano Technology used is actually so small that it can be ingested (inhaled) . I think they are making sure it is safe as far as that goes...I'll have to find the article that talks about the care needed when making this stuff.

I'll see if I can find it...it doesn't sound like anything too terrible dangerous. After all, how many people would be on their roof sniffing their solar stuff. :)

This is fascinating stuff! Thanks for posting the You Tube.

I read about a "sheet" for lack of a better term that is connected to an outlet and you can charge several appliances (cell phone, etc) by just laying them on the sheet - I think it handles up to 8 chargees.

Great info. The use of renewable energy sources like solar is really a big selling point in my local market. I would say that 80% of the new home builders in the area have integrated the solar tiles into the new construction homes. That, coupled with high energy efficient building materials, drastically reduces and can often eliminate electricity bills all together (gotta love sunny California).

I have followed the technology for a while and find it both fascinating and a great direction for energy independence (which I believe is often best achieved on a local and individual basis). I hope that the reduction in production cost is passed directly on to the consumers as the high cost of retrofit solar (compared to what is can produce energy wise) has been one of the biggest hurdles to widespread implementation.

Thanks for the post!

DEC

2007

This is a great info . I am hoping we will get the Green drive here on Maui Hawaii.

By the way , did you here of a HERS Inspector ?

( A Home Energy Rating System Specialist )

Very interesting. Good stuff. Thanks for posting.

Interestingly good stuff. I look forward to the day when the prices fall to where everyone can afford a good, effective alternative power system!

Andrew, I recently read about this company and their product and also look forward to seeing it become available to everyone.

Great post. It will be interesting to watch and see this technology come to market.

Sounds awesome. Anything that conserves energy is great. In Florida there is a push to incinerate garbage and use the power from the incineration of the garbage. Why fill up the landfills when the garbage still has use.

Thanks for the info Andrew. I live 2 hours from the plant and knew nothing about this. My neighbor just put out solar panels on the back of his 5 acres and they measure about 50 by 50. Can't wait to get the same power for less and smaller.

I absolutely LOVE nanotechnology! I can't wait til I can be wearing a nano-powered t-shirt that will run my iPod! :)

WOW! I was featured! I was caught totally off guard by that. Thanks all for the comments, there are so many that I can't respond to them all. But I did want to respond to a few.

Stephanie, there is a lot of talk about he dangers of nano-tech and I think that in this case it would be safe since the product is sealed to the surface in paint form. However, i have heard of issues with particles from products in clothing fibers..... That would be interested to learn more about.

Joseph, If you get a chance to visit the plant I would love to hear about it!

Andrew - congrats on the feature. You always bring good information to the table. I remember reading an article a while back about how nanotechnology will make it feasible to print solar sheets from your home computer. Awesome stuff!

DEC

2007

Very encouraging news. I wonder what the payback period would be on a retrofit or if it will even be possible to install the system on an existing roof.

I have some background with utility companies and independent power (which this essentially would be) and I'm not as optimistic that they'll be as crazy about the idea of buying power back as is suggested.

One way they can discourage this is by making the intertie back to the grid cost prohibitive.

Still, very hopeful something comes of this.

Jan In utah our utility will buy power back, but for how long? If everyone were to install solar you can bet things will change. However, I think that will be a problem that is far off. That is one problem I see with the future of ventures like CitizenRE.

Leave a response…

Name:

Email:
(optional)

Comment:

What does the graphic say?