Thin-film solar films are more than 100x thinner than silicon-wafer cells and thus have correspondingly lower materials cost.

Combining the materials-cost advantage of thin films with the process cost advantage of Nanosolar's 100x faster process technology leads to the best of both worlds.

The result is the world's most cost-efficient solar electricity cells and panels:

Technology Wave	I. Wafer Cells	II. Vacuum-Based Thin-Film-on-Glass	III. Roll-Printed Thin-Film-on-Foil
Process:	Silicon wafer processing	Sputtering, evaporation in a vacuum chamber	Printing in plain air
Process Control:	Fragile wafers	Expensive metrology	Built-in bottom-up reproducibility
Process Yield:	Robust	Fragile	Robust
Materials Utilization:	30%	30-50%	Over 95%
Substrate:	Wafer	Glass	Conductive Foil
Continuous Processing:	No -- wafer handling	No -- glass handling	Yes
Cell Matching:	Yes	No	Yes
Panel Current:	High	Low	High
Energy Payback:	3 years	1.7 years	< 1 month
Throughput/CapEx	1	2-5	10-25