(FORTUNE Small Business) – Sukant Tritathy, a brilliant chemist at the University of Massachusetts, gave a keynote speech at an academic conference in Hawaii just weeks before he was to launch a company that would produce cheap solar power and that would, he believed, forever change the energy industry. Not long after the speech, he went for a swim in the ocean and tragically drowned. Yet the work he left behind is now the foundation for one of today's hottest solar-energy startups, thanks to an entrepreneur named Howard Berke, who decided to commercialize Tritathy's work in 2001, the year after he died. The new company, named in the chemist's honor, is called Konarka after a Hindu sun temple.

Berke's vision is to use nanotechnology to make photovoltaics—the process of turning sunlight directly into electricity—cheap, lightweight, and widely available. Imagine molecules embedded on material as thin and flexible as plastic wrap, converting indoor and outdoor light into power—and doing it all without noise, moving parts, fuel, or pollution. "I saw this as a chance," says Berke, "of changing the lives of millions of people." (For more on how photovoltaics work, see the diagram on page 40.)

Most of the photovoltaics systems sold today are made of silicon, the same material at the heart of computer chips. Corporate giants such as BP, Kyocera, and Sharp sell the systems, but they are bulky and expensive to manufacture (think clean rooms and highly paid technicians in bunny suits). It's a fast-growing business (see the chart on the next page), but so far it is relegated to niche applications such as satellites and high-end homes. The Holy Grail is to make photovoltaics, which are about three times more expensive than fossil fuels, more affordable.

Konarka believes it can dramatically lower costs by moving away from silicon technology. Its thin film is based on organic chemicals. Essentially, it prints a nano-mixture of titania (a white organic chemical often used in toothpaste and sunscreen) onto a thin sheet of film. Employing a process similar to that used by photo film manufacturers such as Fuji and Kodak, Konarka can very cheaply and quickly print huge rolls of photovoltaic sheets.

Today Berke is well on his way to achieving his—and Tritathy's—dream. Konarka recently landed multimillion-dollar contracts with the Pentagon to deliver, among other things, a tent made of material that generates electricity from the sun, and a thin piece of film that soldiers can carry on the field to recharge the batteries in their cellphones, night scopes, and GPS systems. It's no surprise that the military has skin in the game, considering that a special-ops commando today might have to carry as much as 70 pounds of batteries into battle. "We're extremely excited," says Lynne Samuelson, a chemist at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. "Konarka's thin film could allow our special-ops soldiers to stay longer and go farther in hostile territory."

Berke, 50, attributes his success so far to his ability to assemble an alternative-energy dream team. In addition to a slew of respected industry veterans, Konarka has two Nobel laureates on its board. Alan Heeger, a physicist from the University of California at Santa Barbara, specializes in plastics that conduct electricity. Arno Penzias was a pioneer in electronics at Bell Labs.

Berke himself is no slouch. Since the late 1970s, he has started 12 successful companies. His first big win was a medical imaging company called ADAC Laboratories, which sold for $1 billion. Then, during the Internet boom, he built White Pine Software, a web-based videoconferencing business, which he took public in 1996.

To finance all the talent and technology he needs, Berke has turned to venture capitalists. Since starting his 40-person company, he's raised $32.5 million from VC heavyweights such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, New Enterprise Associates, Vanguard, and Zero Stage Capital. But so far the only revenue Konarka has collected is from the military. Dan McGahn, Konarka's chief marketing officer, says the company will have consumer products out by the end of 2005, but it's too early for him to talk specifics.

While Konarka's thin film will cost about a third less than traditional solar, it is still more expensive than fossil fuel. But as McGahn points out, his competition right now isn't a utility but "the Honda generator that the military, at great expense, has to fly into the desert, maintain, and refuel."

The advantage of Konarka's technology is that it is flexible enough to be integrated into anything, from cloth to roofing material. Berke says that in the lab his most efficient film translates 8% of the sun's energy. That's still lower than silicon, which on average is nearly twice as efficient, but it is remarkable for an entirely new product. "This technology could revolutionize the photovoltaic market completely," says Michael Eckhart, president of the nonprofit American Council on Renewable Energy.

Konarka is not alone—other startups such as Nanosolar and Nanosys, both headquartered in Palo Alto, are also working on nonsilicon thin-film technology. Competitor Martin Roscheisen, the founder and CEO of Nanosolar, argues that Konarka's film won't last long enough—at least 20 years—for mainstream uses like rooftop power generation. "They can't get their product lifetime beyond a couple of years," he says. "They'll just be a niche player." Berke counters by saying that Konarka is working on four chemical approaches besides titania and expects to develop a long-lasting product suitable for roofing.

One thing that gives Konarka a leg up on its competitors is that it will be the first to deliver a prototype to a customer. It plans to ship a solar tent to the Air Force this year. The 30- by 40-foot tent is made of a canvas material layered with Konarka's thin-film material. As it sits in the sun (think the deserts of the Middle East), the tent would generate electricity. A soldier could recharge a radio by hooking it into the tent's material.

The applications for Konarka's technology seem endless. The company has, for instance, created in its labs a thread that is a photovoltaic cell. The fiber could be woven into clothes or backpacks. The Army's Samuelson envisions detachable cloth patches that could help a soldier avoid friendly fire and that could detect biological weapons.

Konarka's thin film still awaits vigorous military testing before being approved as battle-ready. That is not a sure thing. "Every time I launched a new technology, people said it couldn't be done," says Berke, "but then we did it. I don't see why it should be any different this time." Given the tough odds for this tricky technology, it's a good thing he's such an optimist.