Thin-film, that is. Traditional photovoltaic cells make poor large-scale solar generation plants because they are inefficient, and they take a lot of high-grade silicon to manufacture (of which there is a shortage at present). The company Nanosolar has just signed a deal with Conergy to develop power plants based on their new thin-film photovoltaics – plants that they believe will be able to produce electricity at the same price as peak demand power from other (non-renewable) resources. They must be on to something, as a lot of other big name companies are chasing the same idea.