+ Nanosolar Powersheets

Popular Science named Nanosolar Powersheets the Innovation of the Year for 2007. Nanosolar is revolutionizing the solar industry by making solar panels as thin sheets instead of the traditional bulky solar panels.

"The company produces its PowerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute."

Up to this point most solar panels have been made out of silicon which require mounting on glass plates, making the panels thick, fragile, inefficient to manufacture and hard to install. Nanosolar's Powersheets do not use silicon and can be thinly printed, decreasing their cost, and increasing the number of possibilities when it comes to installation.

"You can picture roof shingles with solar cells built inside and window coatings that seem to suck power from the air."

For more information and an explanation of how the Powersheets work, visit the Popular Science Best of What's New website or Nanosolar's website.