Insights · November 17th, 2008
The nation of Dubai announced at the Green Dubai World Forum late last month that the world’s largest manufacturing facility for solar cells will be built in Dubai. The company building the facility, Solar Technologies FZE, is also based in Dubai. They build cells made from thin film silicon on glass, at sizes up to 5.7 square meters. The company has not revealed what the annual capacity of the plant will be. (The company website has a nice set of downloadable reports and briefings.)
A competing technology based on nanotech liquid film applied with printing machines is being produced in Silicon Valley at NanoSolar. They are also working on large industrial scale manufacturing plants.
The prospect for solar to provide a large percentage of future electricity is still understimated, but these developments are promising.
Good links and information here as well.
Glen Hiemstra is a futurist speaker, consultant, blogger, internet TV show host and founder of Futurist.com. To arrange for a speech contact Futurist.com.
