Solar power company SunEdison has started production of solar material using its polysilicon technology which would lower costs of solar equipment.

This represents a step-change in technology and will enable SunEdison to deliver a 400 watt peak solar panel at a cost of $0.40 per watt peak by 2016, according to a statement from SunEdison.

The technology, called "high pressure fluidized bed reactor" (HP-FBR), produces high purity polysilicon 10 times more efficiently and with 90% less energy used than non-FBR technologies.

SunEdison's new HP-FBR technology requires less land, less capital and fewer natural resources, delivering a more economical and sustainable method to produce polysilicon at the lowest overall cost, according to the statement. This will reduce the cost of the raw material needed to produce solar panels to less than $0.05 per watt peak by 2016.

HP-FBR technology is now in production in an Ulsan ( South Korea) joint venture facility of SunEdison, SunEdison Semiconductor and Samsung Fine Chemicals (SFC).

"This technology represents a significant competitive advantage for our company. With the successful startup of our proprietary HP-FBR technology we're on target to meet our goal of producing significantly lower cost, semi-grade polysilicon," Shaker Sadasivam, president and CEO of SunEdison Semiconductor, said.

The capacity of the Korean plant was originally designed for 10,000 metric tons (MT) per year but has been enhanced to 13,500 MT. The plant would be operating at full capacity in the first quarter of 2015, the statement said.