Chris Rivest and SunPrint, a low-cost fabrication method for producing solar cells.
Today, MIT's Technology Review magazine reveals their 2010 list of the world's top innovators under the age of 35. They were chosen because their work—spanning medicine, computing, communications, nanotechnology, and more— was chosen for the immense change they are affecting in the world.
Chris Rivest, 28, was chosen for SunPrint, a technology that lowers the cost of solar cell production from $2 per watt to under $.50 per watt, absolutely necessary if solar power will ever fully displace coal and natural gas. The process, originally developed by Xerox for ink-jets, is called acoustic printing— a sound wave is focused onto a pool of ink, which causes droplets to spatter onto the surface of the print media. This (mystical) process is extremely precise, which reduces the need for expensive tools and materials or further processing. Read more.
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