By John D. Sutter, CNN, June 9, 2010 — Updated 2024 GMT
(CNN) — A professor who invented low-cost solar cells that may be incorporated into energy-producing windows has been awarded the Millennium Technology Prize.
Finland’s Technology Academy on Wednesday awarded Swiss professor Michael Gratzel with the prize, which is said to be the biggest award in the field of technology. The award, which is given as 800,000 Euros, amounts to about $960,000.
The groups says ”Gratzel cells” are significant because they are cheaper than other types of technology that seek to capture energy from the sun.
”Gratzel’s innovation is likely to have an important role in low-cost, large-scale solutions for renewable energy,” Ainomaija Haarla, president of Finland’s Technology Academy, says in a preparednews release on the group’s website.