Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups in the energy industry. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we decided to share our insights with you. So, let’s take a look at promising solar energy solutions.
Heat Map: 5 Top Solar Energy Startups
For our 5 picks of solar energy startups, we used a data-driven startup scouting approach to identify the most relevant solutions globally. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 interesting examples out of 678 relevant solutions. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.
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Raptor Maps – Artificial Intelligence Inspections Of Solar Assets
In order to reduce the time and cost of manual inspections of solar assets, companies are using drones with infrared and high-resolution color cameras to capture images of photovoltaic (PV) assets. The thousands of photos captured this way still require labor-intensive manual review, therefore shifting the burden of expensive manual tasks from gathering images to their analysis. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) comes into play. Automated solar inspections performed by AI-powered software are an efficient alternative to manual ones.
US-based Raptor Maps develops AI-powered software for the automated analysis of the PV system drone imagery. This software also creates actionable reports to track and manage the solar asset health.
Ratesetter – Peer-to-Peer Solar Lending
A peer-to-peer solar lending marketplace is a blockchain-powered online platform that brings together investors, borrowers and clean energy product providers. This platform helps people who want to install solar PV overcome high costs associated with equipment and setup, and empowers investors helping them gain money on sustainable energy solutions.
Australia-based Ratesetter develops a peer-to-peer lending platform, which allows users to lend money to creditworthy borrowers purchasing energy-efficient products, such as solar panels and batteries. Thus they not only receive returns on their investment but also support prosumers.
WePower – Solar Energy Marketplace
For people who don’t have the funds or the right roof for installing photovoltaic panels but want to make more sustainable energy choices, startups have developed a new solution – solar energy marketplaces. These platforms bring together solar asset owners and people willing to buy solar energy. They allow them to transact with each other without the need for a middleman.
Lithuanian WePower builds a decentralized marketplace that enables renewable energy prosumers to transact electricity among each other without a third party. The company directly connects customers with green energy producers so they can contract solar electricity at competitive rates with full transparency through digitally-enabled PPAs (power purchase agreements).
Oxford Photovoltaics – Perovskite-Silicon Solar Cells
Perovskite is a crystalline structure material that improves the efficiency of solar power generation. Applied to an active silicon cell, this material can significantly boost the power output of the cell.
UK startup Oxford Photovoltaics develops a solution for enhancing silicon solar cells’ efficiency limit. It can significantly boost the performance of mainstream solar by applying its low-cost, high-efficiency thin-film perovskite solar cell on top of commercial silicon solar cells.
Sistine Solar – “Solar Skin” For Rooftops
The unattractive look of solar panels, which is sometimes perceived as an unsightly home addition, is one of the major barriers for the wider adoption of solar energy by households. To overcome these issues, startups develop solutions to make solar panels aesthetically appealing.
US-based Sistine Solar, for instance, develops SolarSkin, a product that allows solar panels to have a customized look. This product makes solar panels more aesthetically appealing and allows them to match the appearance of a roof without decreasing the panel efficiency. SolarSkin is compatible with nearly every brand of solar panels.
What About The Other 673 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence for your Proof of Concept (PoC), partnership, or investment targets. The 5 solar energy startups showcased above are promising examples out of 678 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria and collaboration strategy, get in touch.
