New Tech Modules
Modules (AC, Nano, CIGS)
The latest technological improvement to hit the renewable energy industry is an AC high efficiency solar panel with an integrated microinverter mounted directly onto the back side of the panel.
Improve your energy harvest with an AC Solar Panel
Typical solar panels for your home generate DC electricity which then needs to be converted into usable AC power by an inverter box mounted in your garage. With AC Solar Panels the conversion to usable AC electricity happens more efficiently, right at the panel. This revolutionary home solar panel integrates the panel + inverter into one unified product, improving your rooftop electricity harvest by maximizing the energy output of each individual solar panel.
Benefits
- Easy to install around obstructions, shaded areas and on complex rooftops
- Simplifies system design, with panel level DC to AC power conversion
- Improves your energy harvest, with power optimization at the panel level
- Enables detailed energy monitoring of each individual panel
- Backed by 25-year warranty, to guarantee your investment
Detailed monitoring of each panel:
Since every solar panel has its own microinverter, you can monitor each panel’s performance individually through your Monitoring System interface. You can now pinpoint any variation to individual solar panel performance and ensure maximum energy output.
Start small, add on later:
AC solar panels make it easier to start small and add more panels later on, giving you flexibility to expand your system by as many panels as you’d like when you’re ready. Since your solar power system does not need to be sized according to the energy load of a typical garage-mounted inverter, you can add just one or two panels, or several more. It’s that simple.
NANO Solar Modules (aka CIGS)
Scientists have wrestled for decades to establish cost effective processes to convert sunlight into energy. In 2002, Nanosolar set out to revolutionize the solar energy manufacturing processes and by 2010 the first solar modules were ready for field installations. Printing CIGS (Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenium) and nanoparticle inks minimizes the use of expensive, high vacuum manufacturing equipment.
Nanosolar has achieved 17.1% efficiency on laboratory devices, certified by NREL, which shows the potential of our technology to compete with the efficiency of crystalline silicon panels in the next several years. Moreover, the Nanosolar Utility Panel’s innovative design significantly reduces balance-of-system costs through less mounting hardware, electrical cabling and installation labor.
Technological innovation on solar cell level
- Use of a highly conductive, low-cost aluminum foil as the substrate and bottom electrode of the cell
- CIGS ink with pre-defined ratio and a high-yield, high-throughput printing process to form an electronic-grade CIGS semiconductor
- Novel Metal-Wrap-Through (MWT) back-contact design based on high-throughput foil lamination
- Thin/printed transparent top electrode
High-throughput roll-to-roll printable semiconductor technology to enable the world’s lowest-cost thin-film solar panels
The result of the front-end cell production is a roll of inexpensive aluminum foil substrate coated with multiple thin film layers totaling less than two microns. Printed CIGS solar cells and panels are on track to reach efficiencies competitive with crystalline silicon panels in the next several years. Moreover, the Nanosolar Utility Panel’s innovative design significantly reduces balance-of-system costs through less mounting hardware, electrical cabling and installation labor. The end result is a lower levelized cost of energy than competing solar technologies.