1366 Technologies Adds $18m in its Quest to Obtain Cheaper Solar Cells

• 1366 technollogy investing so much to ensure that they spend less time forming wafer with the use of molten silicon.

Massachusetts solar manufacture 1366 Technologies was established in 2008 and are one of the few enterprise capital-funded solar companies of that ear that is still in existence. The tech company which is after affordable silicon solar energy cells, recently hit $18 million in a funding round from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and other investors. 1366 Tech’s durability and commercial achievement are quite unusual in the solar sphere.

Over the years, 1366 Tech has secured over $140 million from investors including Haiyin Capital, Tokuyama, Hanwha Chemical, Energy Technology Ventures, etc. Coupled with the funds raised, the company has won millions of dollars’ worth of Department of Energy (DOE) grants. They have also used a $150 million loan guarantee offer form the DOE’s 1705 renewable energy and electric transmission program. 

So far, the company’s technology has been graded under the Kerfless water category, a technology of special interest to the DOE under the past administrations. The Kerfless water production involves silicon ingots to be put into wafers, as it is seen as an inefficient procedure which wastes materials as silicon dust. Instead, 1366 tech creates wafers directly via molten silicon. Several start-ups like the SiGen and Twin Creeks have tried to create kerfless silicon using Crystal Solar, ion-implantation and Ampilse worked on gas-to-wafer systems. Unfortunately, these competitors could not stand the test of time.