MIT Professor aims to beat coal with multi-crystalline silicon solar cells

It seems that more and more start-up companies are being innovative in their efforts to be environment friendly. Last time, Konarka Technologies revealed how it makes cheap solar film cells using an inkjet printer. Now 1366 Technologies aims to have multi-crystalline silicon solar cells edge out coal-based electricity.

More “green” innovation follows in the full article after the jump.

With today’s campaign for more environmentally-friendly sources of energy, a start-up company by the name of of 1366 Technologies has stepped up to the plate. Its mission: to make multi-crystalline silicon solar cells competitive with coal. To realize this goal, the company has already secured US$ 12.4 million in funds.

MIT Professor Ely Sachs is the founder and CTO of 1366 Technologies. Sachs explained how the company will go about achieving its goal:

The science is understood, the raw materials are abundant and the products work. All that is left to do is innovate in manufacturing and scale up volume production, and thatÂ’s just what we intend to do.

Specifically, 1366 Technologies will make use of a new kind of MIT-developed cell architecture to improve surface texture and metallization. This basically increases the efficiency of multi-crystalline silicon solar cells by 25% while decreasing cost at the same time.