Nanosolar Goes Macro

Nanosolar has been getting a lot of press recently, and the reports are certainly encouraging. This article mentions "30 cents a watt" production costs and a production facility that can crank out 430 MW worth of cells per year. Impressive numbers.

A quick check of the math shows that these are some saliva-inducing figures, even if you assume that it costs double the quoted price to get the panels configured in power-plant-size arrays. Another key assumption is the longevity of the panels... do they last a year, 25 years, 100 years?



As you can see, if they last just 15 years they're beating out coal, which would mean Nanosolar has a [come on Mark, fight it, FIGHT IT... ah to heck with it] very bright future. I'd have to think that becoming a power-plant producer that uses this technology would be extremely lucrative, which is probably why a lot of people are drooling on the sidelines waiting to see if Nanosolar can deliver on these big promises. I know I am.