With rising energy costs and the growing concern over global warming motivating people to live a more green daily life, solar energy company Nanosolar has hit on a bargain basement price point … one Dollar ($1) a watt. Sort of. Nano solar is placing their energy efficient and cost effective solar panels on eBay with a starting bid price of .99. Bids have risen to over $10,000 with the auction going until December 27th.

Still, with the auction going on, the story is how Nansolar has been able to make solar energy collection so cheap. According to the company website, Nanosolar essentially “prints” the solar cells on their aluminum base, making it 100 times thinner, and 100 times faster to manufacture. That’s the company hype anyway. Still, with this proprietary manufacturing process in place, Nanosolar can not only offer affordable solar cells that are cheaper to operate than coal, but the efficiency will improve as the technology matures.

And with heavy hitting executives from IBM joining the team, it seems only a matter of time before Nanosolar takes the lead in solar energy collection. And with over $100 million in raised capitol and orders for the first 18 months of operation, Nanosolar seems well on its way.

Source: Solve Climate