2008 will start with some positive trends for renewable energy generation, Nanosolar, a company in Silicon Valley, has managed to lower the cost of solar panels to below the US$1 per watt mark.

According to the company’s CEO, Martin Roscheisen, Nanosolar’s panels are the world’s lowest cost solar panel, making the company the first manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as US$0.99 per watt.

Nanosolar’s technology is based on recent scientific advances in nanostructured materials, which the company has developed into a proprietary nanoparticle ink that greatly simplifies the printing process of semiconductor material for solar panels. Combining the ink printing process with low cost and highly conductive metal foils, which further lowers costs and improves performance.

In early December, the company announced a contract win with Beck Energy, a solar power systems integrator in Germany, to build a 1 megawatt plant on top of a landfill owned by a waste management company in Eastern Germany.

The company is backed by a list of venture capitalists, but also counts Google big-wigs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page (and his dad – Carl) as investors.