Greentech Lead America: Nanosolar, a designer and
manufacturer of thin-film solar cells and panels, has completed 1 MW
ground-mounted solar installation at Camp Roberts.
The project at the largest of California’s National Guard
training facilities, located in San Miguel, Calif., is comprised of 4,992 of
Nanosolar’s thin-film panels.
The panels will be used to test the capabilities of the
solution for producing energy in areas where solar irradiance is above average.
At Camp Roberts, strong annual insolation of 1892 kWh/m2 is typical.
“Our project at Camp Roberts shows how our
technology can be used for both military and non-military applications, on a
path to greater energy independence. Nanosolar is on track to deliver the most
cost-efficient solar electricity, with the expectation that we can achieve grid
parity with non-renewable energy resources by 2015,” said Eugenia
Corrales, CEO of Nanosolar.
The installation is part of the U.S. Department of
Defense’s (DoD) Energy Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP).
ESTCP
is testing various green technologies to identify viable solutions to address
rising energy costs and minimize the reliance on fossil fuels. The DoD spends
over $4 billion annually on electricity use, accounting for more than 90
percent of the federal government’s energy use.
Nanosolar is contributing to the ESTCP program with its
solar demonstration project at Camp Roberts, designed to show the effectiveness
of using its low-cost, thin-film CIGS (Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenium)
utility panels.
Nanosolar utilizes its CIGS printing technology to
produce the world’s lowest-cost solar panels The company uses a
high-throughput, roll-to-roll printing process to coat aluminum foil with
proprietary CIGS inks, while avoiding the use of high-cost vacuum deposition
processes. It also has a metal wrap-through (MWT) back-contact design that
enables it to produce cells with 11.5 percent module efficiency.
editor@greentechlead.com
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