The CIGS ink particles are even nanometers thick it seems: http://www.nanosolar.com/nanoink.htm "A key advantage of the ink is specific to an idiosyncracy of the CIGS semiconductor: Because it consists of four elements which have to be in just the right atomic ratios to each other, the ink serves a useful purpose by effectively "locking in" a uniform distribution ("by design"). The homogeneous mix of nanoparticles in the ink in just the right overall amounts ensures that the atomic ratios of the four elements are correct wherever the ink is printed, even across large areas of deposition."
Something puzzles me in the above BTW, they seem to suggest the four elements are not mixed at the particle level but at the ink level... could this mean that each nanoparticle is either Cu, In, Ga or Se? If this is the case one can easily believe their production costs are low, as even the nanoink material wouldn't cost much to process! Anyway back to Michael's question, we can estimate that the particles are at most 100nm in diameter (otherwise they wouldn't qualify as 'nano'), so worst case CIGS use is 100e-9 m^3 per m^2. Density being less than 10g/cm^3 = 10e6 g/m^3, that's less than 100e-9*10e6 = 1g/m^2. Assuming 10% efficiency (100W/m^2) they use 0.01g of CIGS per watt at most. So, if my calculation is correct, even at $1000/Kg = $1/g the cost of the active material would be 1 cent per watt at most, i.e. less than 3% of their rumored 30 cents total cost per watt. Michel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin van Spaandonk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2007 8:32 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]:Nanosolar has started production In reply to Michael Foster's message of Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:56:49 -0800 (PST): Hi, [snip] >I hope they succeed at what they are doing. I am concerned that I cannot find >how much indium and gallium they use either per square meter or per watt. The It can't be much, because as I remember, the film is only microns thick, which is why they can print it on. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
