Nanosolar’s CEO Speaks, Doesn’t Say Much

In the running for headline of the day. From Greentech Media Research:

Nanosolar is a poster child for Silicon Valley solar innovation.

What does it have?

• Half a billion in venture and strategic investment? Check.
• Top shelf VC investors? Check.
• Secretive and allegedly disruptive technology? Check.
• Ornery technology? Check.
• Ornery and driven CEO? Check.
• Billions in alleged order backlog? Check.
• Periodic rumors of them being the next monster IPO in greentech? Check.

It's been hard to separate fact from fiction with this company. And that's been its prerogative. It's a privately held firm and doesn't have to disclose a thing if it doesn't want to. Which is one reason why Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen's short speech filled the 327 person capacity auditorium at the Palo Alto Research Center on Wednesday's night meeting at the SVPVS.

Nanosolar has spent a lot of money. "If I don't get a request to sign-off on a $70K P.O. every day, then our metrology guys must be out sick," joked Roscheisen. The company has 350 employees, 350 patents and has focused on reinventing CIGS with regard to capital efficiency and cost. It's been at work on this mammoth project since 2002.

I'd like to tell you that Roscheisen dropped several bombshells and gave all us the scoop on their next milestone and conquest, but it was not to be. You can probably learn more about Nanosolar's recent activities in this article from Ucilia Wang, in this blog on Nanosolar patents from Eric Lane and in the sleuthing of Ed Guenther than you could learn from Martin's slide show....MORE