1366 Technologies, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology spin-off focused on engineering and manufacturing advanced silicon solar cells, has been awarded a cost-shared, 18-month subcontract with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The contract is for 1366 Technologies' project titled ‘Self-Aligned Cell: Scaling up manufacture of a cost-effective cell architecture for multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaics.’
The total potential funding from the DOE – under the Solar America Initiative (SAI) – is up to $3 million for the project. 1366 Technologies says it was awarded the agreement after a technology review by a panel of experts under the highly competitive SAI Incubator Program.
1366 Technologies will use the SAI funds to further develop its self-aligned cell technology, which is intended to allow cost-effective, scalable manufacturing of multi-crystalline solar cells. ‘Increasing cell efficiency without increasing costs is the solar industry's biggest manufacturing challenge,’ says Ely Sachs, chief technical officer of 1366 Technologies. ‘Our self-aligned cell does exactly this, by producing cells with monocrystalline efficiencies at multicrystalline costs. This is a big step toward making solar power competitive with traditional electricity generation.’
SOURCE: 1366 Technologies
