Friday, October 10, 2008

DOE deals $17M to two Bay State solar technology firms

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Local solar technology companies 1366 Technologies Inc. in Lexington and Solasta Inc. in Newton have been selected to receive part of a $17.6 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The DOE program, which is intended to spur early stage innovation and accelerate the migration of technology from the laboratory to pilot production, named six companies in all, each for an 18-month project.

1366 Technologies, which landed $12.4 million in private funding last spring, will receive $3 million for the development of a new multi-crystalline cell, which is expected to reach 19 percent efficiency by the end of the project.

Solasta, which won an undisclosed amount of funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers over the summer, will receive $2.6 million through the program for the development of its amorphous-silicon “nanocoax” technology. The company has kept the details of its technology under wraps, but the DOE announcement claims it will increase current flow in wiring and lower materials cost, and reach 15 percent efficiency by the end of the 18 months.