C3Nano, Inc., a company founded by Stanford University students, has won the 2010 MIT Clean Energy Prize for the development of a new transparent electrode material, which, it is claimed, will make photovoltaic solar panels both cheaper and more efficient.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and 3M, the St. Paul, Minn.-based technology company, have embarked on research and development partnerships in three key areas of clean energy innovation: thin-film photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and biofuels.