CALIFORNIAN SOLAR energy company Innovalight, headed by Dubliner Conrad Burke, has secured $3.4 million (€2.4 million) in funding from the US department of energy (DOE).

The funding, which has been awarded under the US government’s SunShot initiative, will be used to accelerate the development and production of Innovalight’s “silicon ink” which improves solar cell efficiency.

Based in Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley, Innovalight licenses its proprietary process technology to makers of solar cells and has signed up a number of big Chinese manufacturers in the last two years.

These include JA Solar, Yingli Solar and Nasdaq-quoted Solarfun Power Holdings.

“After a hyper-competitive selection process, we are thrilled that we were selected for funding by the US department of energy,” said Mr Burke, Innovalight’s president and chief executive. “This endorsement from the DOE for our innovative silicon ink technology, which was invented and is exclusively manufactured here in the United States, is very timely for our expansion plans.”

The SunShot initiative is based on the same thinking as that behind US president John F Kennedy’s “moon shot” drive of the 1960s to enable the US to regain the space race lead and land on the moon. The goal of SunShot is to cut the installation cost of solar electricity by 75 per cent.

Founded by Mr Burke in 2005, Innovalight’s ink can improve the efficiency of solar cells by a full percentage point – that is an 18 per cent efficient cell can add a point when coated with the ink.

Mr Burke was named Ernst Young’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year last October.