Cheap Solar Panels
Nanosolar is now producing panels that make solar power cheaper than coal for the first time. Current photovoltaic panels use expensive and fragile silicon wafers. Nanosolar has developed a process to "print" photovoltaic material onto flexible rolls of aluminum cheaply and quickly, producing solar panels for less than $1 a watt, and enabling construction of large solar power plants for $2 a watt (coal plants cost about $2.10 a watt to build). The cost should continue to drop as production scales up.
