1366 scores $150M DOE loan for solar tech plant, 1 GW solar mfg construction begins 2013

[txlibdem]

Friday, June 17, 2011
1366 scores $150M DOE loan for solar tech plant
By Kyle Alspach

Solar technology developer 1366 Technologies Inc. announced Friday it has received a $150 million loan commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy for the construction of a commercial production facility in Massachusetts along with a second larger plant in the U.S.

The Lexington-based company said the Massachusetts plant, which will also be located in Lexington, will be fully operational by 2013 and will produce the equivalent of 20 megawatts per year of silicon solar wafers, a building block of solar panels. The company didn’t say whether a specific location has been chosen for the facility, which will employ 100 people.

Construction of the second facility — which will produce the equivalent of 1,000 megawatts of wafers a year — is set to start in 2013, 1366 said. The facility will employ 300 people and will be built in the U.S., though the location hasn’t been decided, the company said.

Founded in 2008, 1366 said it has developed a new process for manufacturing solar wafers that wastes less silicon and energy, and ultimately costs 65 percent below the cost of conventional processes. The company intends to become a supplier of the wafers to solar panel makers.

http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2011/06/13/daily54-1366-scores-150M-DOE-loan-for-solar-tech-plant.html

An old press release explains their novel approach to making solar cells less costly, with less wasted silicon, and higher efficiency:

Lexington, MA – September 14, 2009 –1366 Technologies (www.1366tech.com), a silicon photovoltaics company, today unveiled two breakthrough technologies for multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. The company’s significant advancements in cell texturing and metallization deliver simpler, more commercially-viable solutions for multicrystalline cell manufacturers striving to reach 18 percent efficiency. 1366 Technologies’ Self-Aligned Cell (SAC) architecture breaks the historic efficiency and cost tradeoff of photovoltaics (PV) by providing mono-crystalline equivalent cell efficiencies at multi-crystalline cell costs.

For years, many PV companies have tried to increase efficiencies by using overly-complicated approaches, such as back-contact or emitter wrap through solar cell technology, which add costly steps to the manufacturing process with minimal gains in cell efficiency. This problem slowed the pace of progress until MIT professor, renowned inventor and 1366 Technologies Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Emanuel “Ely” Sachs, developed a simple, cost-effective approach to improving cell texturing and metallization without increasing production costs.

http://www.1366tech.com/1366-technologies%E2%80%99-breakthrough-solar-cell-architecture-and-manufacturing-processes-enable-record-efficiencies/

Here's a video with a little background info, basic info:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A62URcv9UsQ&feature=player_embedded

Here's a video that shows their manufacturing process in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24Omt4dMIE&feature=player_embedded

[MineralMan]

1. The job creating effects of President Obama's push for

alternative energy technologies is slow to build. Slow, but steady. It takes time for industries implementing new technology to get started, even with money available. After so many years of non-support, the federal government is finally supporting these new technologies, and we're seeing them start to actually move into an operational phase. Until companies actually can begin manufacturing, job creation is low. As they begin building the plants and start production, hiring goes up.

Sadly, we're often too impatient to see what is going on. It doesn't happen quickly. But, it's happening.

Republicans would gladly kill such initiatives. We must stop them from doing so.

[txlibdem]

2. True, they'd club it like a baby seal, evil bastards that they are

The 1366 plant will only be making the solar cells, not the finished panels but someone will turn them into solar panels. With one more GW of solar coming into the system here (plant will be in Massachusetts as I recall), and 1366's cost saving technologies added in for extra effect I think it's a win, win.

The downward price trend for solar PV will continue and one of these days an average middle class family will be able to afford to put solar on their roof.