1366 (the earth’s solar constant is 1366 W/m2) was founded in 2008 to “make silicon solar cells competitive with coal generated electricity.” Its goal is “to build on the success of multi-crystalline solar cells and manufacturing capacity to accelerate the transition to solar.” In March 2008, the company secured $12.4 million in first round financing, co-led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners.

Co-founder Professor Sachs previously invented the String ribbon wafer technology being commercialized at Evergreen Solar, a developer of solar energy products. Both a founder and investor in 1366, Sachs is taking a leave of absence from MIT to help build 1366 based on research developed at and licensed from MIT.

1366 believe that it is essential to construct solar cells out of abundantly available raw materials and to avoid rare and heavy metals. After oxygen, silicon is the most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. The silicon PV is today’s most successful solar cell and, because of the abundance of its raw material, is likely to stay the dominant technology in the 21st century. For this reason, 1366 is focusing its efforts on silicon, rather than looking for exotic designs and materials.

Over the last 30 years, the performance of silicon PV has increased and the cost has dropped at a steady pace. Having come a long way, the field is now in striking distance of coal parity. 1366 intends to close this gap with key innovations in all areas of silicon photovoltaics. With today’s technology, a silicon photovoltaic cell produces 20 times the energy it takes to make the module. Using new processes from 1366 it is possible to double this ratio.

1366 will be combining innovations in silicon cell architecture with manufacturing process improvements to bring multi-crystalline silicon solar cells to cost parity with coal-based electricity. The company’s roadmap includes a new cell architecture that uses low-cost fabrication methods to increase the efficiency of multi-crystalline solar cells. This architecture, developed at MIT by Professor Sachs, improves surface texture and metallization to enhance silicon solar cell efficiency by 25% (from 15-19%) while lowering costs.

The company’s Light-Capturing Ribbon increases the efficiency of a solar module by reflecting light back onto the surface of the cell. Like standard interconnect wires, the Light-Capturing Ribbon is soldered to the silver busbar on top of the silicon cell and to the solder pads on the back of the next cell.

The grooved surface of the Ribbon steers incoming light back to the glass/air interface at a grazing angle, that allows the light to undergo virtually total internal reflection, directing it back to the cell surface. Up to 80% of the photocurrent from light that strikes the ribbon is recovered, which is far better than the 5% recovered by a standard interconnect wire.

The company has licensed the production process for this interconnect wire to Ulbrich and Schlenk.

1366 is in the process of implementing this architecture in its pilot plant. The company will partner with solar companies and government agencies, licensing its technology to accelerate the ongoing global transition to solar. In addition, the company plans to build industrial, 100 megawatt plants around the world.

Professor Ely Sachs, founder and CTO (Fred Fort Flowers and Daniel Fort Flowers Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and the inventor of “String Ribbon”, a ribbon crystal growth process for making low cost substrates for solar cells, which is now being commercialized by Evergreen Solar)

Frank van Mierlo, co-founder, investor & president (previously founder and President of Bluefin Robotics)