During this first year of a two year sub-contract from NREL under PVMat, a project to lower module manufacturing and related systems costs has been pursued. A novel backskin material has been developed which allows for a frameless module with a wide variety of simpler and lower cost mounting possibilities. Using rapid prototyping techniques and extensive feedback from potential customers, a new junction box has been designed. Preliminary work has been done towards the development of a new encapsulant. This new encapsulant, in turn, will enable the development of a continuous non-vacuum lamination method and the foundation for this was also established. The net result of all of this, when successfully deployed, will be a cost reduction of at least $0.50/watt for both module making and systems installation cost.