‘World-changing’ indoor solar cells deliver everlasting electronics

EEvery six seconds, in a factory on the northern outskirts of Stockholm, a top-secret printer spits out sheets worth thousands of euros each. Each contains 108 miniature solar cells that will soon find their way into everyday gadgets – from keyboards to headphones – that will fundamentally change the way we interact with technology. According to their creator, they will even force us to rethink our relationship with light.

Sweden may seem an unlikely place for a solar revolution, but the lack of light during the winter months is one reason why Exeger co-founder Giovanni Fili looked beyond the Sun as only source of energy for a photovoltaic cell. His company’s revolutionary technology can harvest electricity from virtually any light source, from direct sunlight to candlelight. It can even generate a charge from moonlight, although it will take a while for it to be of much use.

“Like algae at the bottom of the ocean, where it’s almost dark, we can use very few photons effectively,” Fili says. The independent. The t-shirt he wears describes his company’s technology as “revolutionary,” capable of simultaneously meeting the world’s energy needs and some of our planet’s greatest environmental challenges.

Indoor solar panels have been around for decades. Solar-powered computers were first introduced in the 1970s, but the limitations of the amorphous silicon cells they rely on mean they are too energy efficient, too fragile and too rigid to be integrated into applications. ‘others products.

The latest innovation stems from a discovery made in 1988 regarding dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Two scientists at the University of Berkeley in California have invented a low-cost, high-efficiency cell that is both semi-flexible and semi-transparent, paving the way for commercial development of the technology.

Just over 20 years later, Fili and Henrik Lindström, co-founder of Exeger, developed a new electrode material with 1,000 times greater conductivity. This breakthrough formed the basis of their Powerfoyle cells, which are now produced on a commercial scale.

Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cells are a radical departure from traditional glass-covered panels, eliminating the need for the silver lines you see on them that serve as conductors. They are also not sensitive to partial shading, which significantly reduces the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.

The patented skin-like material can even transform into almost any material to enable seamless integration into a wide range of products, while remaining waterproof, dust and impact resistant.

“It works in all lighting conditions, it’s more durable than any other solar cell in the world, it’s easy to manufacture and it can mimic any surface – leather, carbon fiber, wood, steel brush. It’s also beautiful,” says Fili. “We can thus integrate products that already sell billions of units per year.”

Exeger’s factory in Stockholm has the capacity to produce 2.5 million square meters of solar cells each year, making it the largest factory of its type in Europe. Speaking at the factory’s opening in 2021, Fili predicted that Exeger’s technology “will touch the lives of a billion people by 2030.”

Powerfoyle solar cells have already found their way into seven commercially available products – including headphones, wireless speakers and a bicycle helmet – while six more have been announced. Clients include Adidas, Phillips and 3M, and are also rumored to be in talks with LogiTech and Apple.

A future without batteries

Exeger is one of several startups pioneering the commercialization of indoor solar panels, with the promise of clean, infinite energy attracting both researchers and entrepreneurs.

American company Ambient Photonics was attracted by the “magical” potential of the smart home, as well as the hope that it would be possible to eliminate the need for disposable batteries.

“The scale at which smart electronics can be deployed has been limited by battery life and the use of traditional batteries, which require continuous charging, stagnate product design and have negative environmental consequences,” Bates Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Ambient Photonics, told The independent.

TV remote controls alone are responsible for destroying 3.1 billion disposable batteries each year, according to Samsung estimates. The Korean electronics giant has made switching from alkaline batteries to photovoltaic power a priority to meet its sustainability goals, saying it could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by around 6,000 tonnes per year.

“Each advancement in the power density of our product brings us closer to a future where the need for disposable batteries is significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely,” says Marshall.

Ambient Photonics’ DSSCs have so far been integrated into remote controls, although limitations in the amount of heat and light they can be exposed to mean the technology is currently limited to indoor applications.

The versatility and durability of Exerger’s Powerfoyle means the only limitations are on power-intensive devices like laptops and smartphones – although they can significantly increase their battery life by 50 to 100 %. Exeger is also exploring a solar-powered tablet case that could provide enough power that infrequent users never need to recharge.

“Our grandchildren will laugh about the fact that we had cables,” Fili says.

One trend Fili has observed is that users of Powerfoyle products have become much more aware of their surroundings and the presence of light in their lives. “We make people aware of light,” he says, “because light is power.”

Fili is driven by the belief that Powerfoyle is an era-defining technology. Exeger is the first to commercialize this technology on this scale, although it remains relatively nascent given that Fili considers everyone on the planet a potential user. Others seem confident in his claims, with Forbes comparing him to figures like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

The technology behind Exeger’s solar cells, like the printers that produce them, is a closely guarded secret. Even the purpose of the thousands of Powerfoyles currently being printed every minute at the Stockholm factory is not yet common knowledge. (Their elongated shape strongly suggests that they will be used in a product that most of us use daily – the one this article is written about.)

“It’s really, really big,” Fili says. “We have just signed a contract with the world’s largest supplier of keyboards and mice and have already established partnerships with some of the biggest companies and brands on the planet. This technology will conquer the world.