Since Nanosolar has been extremely tight-lipped about both the technology and the facility it plans to use to build up to 640 MW/year worth of solar panels in its San Jose-based factory, it was a real treat to catch the video they released at beginning of its production ramp-up in late September. In theory, their continuous thin-film printing technology should make them one of the most competitive solar panel manufacturers on the market. Unfortunately, the cone of silence surrounding their activities has made it difficult to do any meaningful analysis - at least until now.

 I'm not a solar manufacturing expert but, even to my untrained eye, the video does give some clues about Nanosolar's actual capabilities and how likely they are to living up their ambitious claims. I have a few observations of my own but I'm hoping some of our sharp-eyed readers will be use this blog to share their own insights on how closelyNanosolar's actual capabilities match their claims.

The video below accompanied Nanosolar's September announcement that it was commencing low-level production in its San Jose-based facility with an anticipated output of 1 MW/month, around 1/40th of the plant's claimed full capacity. This is a bit lower than I'd expected but probably a good level at which to wring the bugs out of a new factory that's running a completely novel manufacturing technology.

I'm impressed at the high levels of automation used for every stage of production (at least the ones shown in the video) - a level that should make labor a very small fraction of production costs - even in a high-rent area like Silicon Valley. If I'm not mistaken, there's a statement in the video that the lower labor costs allow the panel a distinct price advantage over comparable Asian or European products, once the cost of transport is factored in. That said, I could not find any scene in the video with more than one panel on the assembly line at a time. Perhaps I missed something or perhaps Nanosolar is cleverly hiding some yet-to-be-worked-out glitch in its assembly line.The wide range of peak power ratings (160W-220W) for the company's utility-grade solar panels also suggests that they may have not been able to tune out all the variations in the production process. Any thoughts on either of these possible anomalies to Nanosolar's public narrative are warmly welcomed

Despite these misgivings, Nanosolar seems to have made an impressive achievement with the launch of an on-shore solar manufacturing facility that may be able to successfully compete with companies that use Asian-based factories. Only time will tell if their real-world  performance matches the hopeful scenes we see in this video. In the meanwhile, TechBites readers will welcome any insights, observations, or industry gossip you can post here.