Highly efficient, lightweight and stylish solar modules ‘will revolutionise the way people use solar energy’.
Flisom AG, an innovative and specialized solar technology company, backed by Tata Industries, a group of Swiss investors and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), declared today that they were open for global orders at an exclusive roll out event for customers and partners in Zurich, Switzerland. Flisom showcased a range of applications including buildings-integrated PV modules for light weight roofs and facades.
Flisom’s solar modules are extremely light (as light as 200g/m2), and highly efficient (up to 50x power-to-weight ratio compared to silicon PV panels) and ultra-thin (under 2mm). In addition, their uniform, jet-black design offers beautiful aesthetics, making the technology suitable for use anywhere that aesthetics are also important.
Since 2013, Flisom has invested in developing proprietary manufacturing equipment and components, creating a unique ‘roll to roll’ manufacturing process which can replicate the laboratory success of CIGS solar technology on an industrial scale. It is already scaling up production in Switzerland to fulfil incoming orders and scouting for locations globally for further scale up.
The company is already working with leading global automotive, aerospace, and transportation companies to create custom solar-integrated solutions, for cars, UAVs and public transportation carriages.
Over the past few years, Flisom has received significant investment from Tata Industries (part of the $100bn Tata group) and a group of Swiss investors.
Over the next year, Flisom will be targeting opportunities in the UK, continental Europe and the United States.
Mr. K.R.S. Jamwal, Executive Director, Tata Industries said, “Tata has invested in cutting-edge and future technologies to be able to re-imagine and reinvent businesses for the future. We are proud that our support has enabled Flisom to create the best and most efficient flexible solar panels available anywhere in the world. It will enable solar to be used in ways and in places never possible before, such as in transportation and aerospace, and much more effectively on all roofs.”
“We’ve taken our time to engineer a product that looks better and performs better than the competition,’ explained Flisom’s Chief Executive Officer, Rahul Budhwar. ”Our modules boast high efficiency, coupled with a stylish, jet black aesthetic and flexible light form factor, meaning they can be used on products and in places where adoption of solar energy was not possible before – like cars, light weight roofs and drones. We’re already working with a range of leading aerospace, building and transportation companies to make our vision of enabling solar everywhere a reality.
“We can scale up industrial production in a way that hasn’t been possible before for flexible CIGS solar technology – meaning Flisom’s modules have the potential to radically transform the way the world uses solar.”
Prof. Dr. Gian-Luca Bona, CEO of Empa, said: “Empa researchers hold the world record for energy conversion efficiency in a CIGS solar cell – and our technology, in turn, forms the core of Flisom’s transformative solar modules. Today’s showcase is, therefore, an exciting day for us as a long-term partner to Flisom, but also as a global leader driving continuous progress and innovation in the field of advanced solar technology. We are delighted to host the first full-scale Flisom pilot installation on our campus where it will supply sustainable energy for ‘move’, our demonstration platform for future mobility.”
About Flisom
Flisom was founded in 2005 as a spin-off of the Solid State Physics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) – a scientific institution with global renown. For several years, the company remained in ‘stealth mode’, working closely with Empa to design and improve its core technology. The historic link with world-leading research institutions forms the basis of Flisom’s identity, and the guarantee of continuous improvement of its cutting-edge technology. The company offers solar technology solutions for a range of applications in the buildings and transportation industries as well in specialised applications. For further information, visit. www.flisom.com
