1.23.24-Japan-Active-Surfaces

JEANNE PIDOUX: Good morning, everyone. My name is Jeanne Pidoux. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak with you today. I'm part of the Active Surfaces team. And we're doing ultra lightweight flexible solar.

Active Surfaces was born at MIT after nearly a decade of research at the nanolab. Shiv and Rich, our cofounders, came to a simple realization. If we want to achieve our 2050 net-zero ambition, we need a lot of solar. Actually, we need the equivalent of building the largest solar farm that exists today every day for the next 25 years. So that's a lot.

If you look at rooftop solar, though, it's constrained. In the United States, only 4% of American buildings, 3% have solar PVs. And looking at Tokyo, only 4% of buildings have solar panels. So we need more.

The core issue is that the traditional solar technology that's based on silicon panel was not built for the built environment. It's very heavy. It's extremely labor intensive to install. And finally, it's rigid, limiting the deployment opportunity on non-flat roof.

What we're proposing at Active Surface is a breakthrough technology that's lightweight, low cost, flexible solar power for any surface. With the technology, we're aiming at being 120 times lighter module than traditional silicone panel. And that unlocks a dual value proposition.

First, we're able to open new markets. You can think about applying solar panel on new applications that haven't been tapped before. Second thing, we're also lowering system costs, both in terms of structural costs but also labor costs significantly.

So how do we do this? So we have a patented technology portfolio from MIT with six patents that span from manufacturing, packaging, and metal, and device. In terms of manufacturing, we're using high-speed virtual slot die coating to allow for cost reduction at scale.

In terms of packaging, we're using in-house substrate to allow for durable, thinner packaging that limits the limitation. And in terms of material and device, we're using a perovskite chemical solvent and passivation techniques to ensure high efficiency. And MIT holds the record on that with 25.2% of efficiency from 2019.

That allows to be competitive versus traditional silicon solar panel in terms of, weight module cost, install cost, and efficiency, but also to compete with other thin-film technologies, such as CIGS or organic PVs, that haven't been able-- that have been able to breakthrough on weight but not on durability, cost, and efficiency, as our technology is able to do that.

With our product, you can think about making any surface solar. So think about car roof, drones, canopies, farming, space, and also commercial building. That's where we're starting. We're starting to focus first on commercial warehousing, specifically on low-load roofing, so those buildings that do not have sufficient roof to sustain a traditional solar panel. Because we have a significant advantage because of our lightweight.

Let's put yourself in an illustrative like customer. And if you look at it in Boston and you own a 5,000 meter squared building and you're a property manager and you want to install solar panel, if you're looking at the current traditional technology right now, it's going to be 100 tons. The upfront cost is probably going to vary between $1.5 million to $4 million and potentially more if you have to do reroofing with a payback ratio of around seven years. With our technology, you're dividing that by more than two, all of that for the same power output of one megawatt.

But let's zoom away from the US and think about Japan and Asia specifically. For us, we believe that there are significant business opportunities in Japan, specifically because of the limited land space, where flexible urban solar is going to be extremely appealing in the coming years, also with the incentive for facade deployment.

We also view Japan as an ideal hub given the strategic location, the infrastructure, and the very important talent pool in perovskite. We have pilots under discussion in Thailand and in Singapore. And we're also currently exploring major partnership with major Japanese firms.

So if any of these resonates with you, if you'd like to share your perspective on the solar market in Japan or be open to piloting our technology in one of your locations, I'll be at the launch exhibit right after. So please, do connect. Thank you for listening.

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