Ein six seconds, a top-secret printer in a factory on the northern outskirts of Stockholm churns out sheets worth thousands of euros each. Each contains 108 miniature solar cells that will soon find their way into everyday devices – from keyboards to headphones – that will fundamentally change the way we interact with technology. According to their creator, they will even make us rethink our relationship to light.
Sweden may seem like an unlikely place for a solar revolution, but the lack of light during the winter months was one of the reasons Exeger co-founder Giovanni Fili looked to the sun as the only source of energy for a photovoltaic cell. His company’s breakthrough technology can harvest electricity from virtually any light source, from direct sunlight to candlelight. It can even generate a charge from moonlight, though it would take a while to be of much use.
“Just like algae at the bottom of the ocean, where it’s almost pitch black, we can only use very few photons effectively,” says Fili The Independent. The T-shirt he wears describes his company’s technology as “world-changing,” capable of simultaneously solving global energy needs and some of our planet’s biggest environmental problems.
Indoor solar panels have been around for decades. Solar calculators were first introduced in the 1970s, but the limitations of the amorphous silicon cells they rely on mean they are too low-power, too fragile and too rigid to be integrated into other products.
The most recent innovation stems from the 1988 discovery of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A pair of scientists at UC Berkeley in California invented a low-cost, highly efficient cell that was both semi-flexible and semi-transparent, paving the way for commercial development of the technology.
A little over 20 years later, Fili and Exeger co-founder Henrik Lindström came up with a new electrode material that offered 1,000 times better conductivity. This breakthrough formed the basis of their Powerfoyle cells, which are now produced on a commercial scale.
Exeger’s Powerfoyle solar cells offer a radical departure from traditional glass panels, eliminating the need for the silver lines you see on them that act as conductors. They are also not sensitive to partial shading, which drastically reduces the efficiency of photovoltaic panels.
The patented skin-like material can even transform into almost any material, enabling seamless integration into a huge range of products while remaining waterproof, dustproof and shockproof.
“It works in any lighting conditions, is more durable than any other solar cell in the world, is easy to manufacture and can mimic any surface – leather, carbon fiber, wood, brushed steel. It’s also beautiful,” says Fili. “So we can integrate into products that are already sold in billions of units a year.”
Exeger’s factory in Stockholm has the capacity to produce 2.5 million square meters of solar cells per year, making it the largest factory of its kind in Europe. With the factory opening in 2021, Fili predicted that Exeger’s technology would “touch the lives of a billion people by 2030.”
Powerfoyle solar cells have already found their way into seven products on shelves – including headphones, wireless speakers and a cycling helmet – with six more to be announced. Customers include Adidas, Phillips and 3M, while they are also said 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 and endless energy attracting researchers and entrepreneurs alike.
US-based Ambient Photonics was drawn into the space by the “magical” potential of the smart home, as well as the hope of eliminating the need for disposable batteries.
“The extent to which smart electronics can be deployed has been limited by battery life and the use of traditional batteries that require continuous charging, stagnate in product design and have negative environmental impacts,” Bates Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Ambient Photonics, said The Independent.
According to TV remote controls, 3.1 billion disposable batteries are thrown away every year estimates from Samsung. The Korean electronics giant has made switching from alkaline batteries to photovoltaics a priority to meet sustainability goals, and says it could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by around 6,000 tonnes a year.
“Each advance in the power density of our product brings us closer to a future where the need for disposable batteries is greatly reduced, if not completely eliminated,” says Marshall.
Ambient Photonics’ DSSCs have so far been integrated into remote controls, although limitations with 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 limitation is power-hungry devices such as laptops and smartphones – although they can significantly extend battery life by 50-100 percent. Exeger is also researching a solar-powered tablet case that could provide enough power for occasional users to never need to charge.
“Our grandchildren will laugh that we had cables,” says Fili.
One of Fili’s trends is that users of Powerfoyle products are 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 the technology on this scale, though it remains relatively nascent given that Fili sees everyone on the planet as a potential user. Others seem convinced of his claims, p Forbes he likens him to figures like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
Exeger’s solar cell technology, as well as the printers that produce them, are closely guarded secrets. Even the purpose of the thousands of Powerfoyles currently being printed every minute at the Stockholm factory is not yet publicly known. (Their elongated shape strongly suggests that they will be used in a product that most of us use every day – the one on which this article is being written.)
“That’s really, really huge,” says Fili. “We’ve just secured a contract with the world’s largest supplier of keyboards and mice and have already partnered with some of the biggest companies and brands on the planet. This technology will take over the world.”