Perovskite solar panel startup Verde Technologies shifts focus to space
TAMPA, Fla. - Verde Technologies is turning to space to commercialize perovskite-based solar panels, shifting its initial focus away from rooftops in a bet that the thin-film material can help power orbital data centers and other large constellations.
Former Honeywell executive Jean-Noël Poirier is joining the Burlington, Vermont-based startup as CEO July 8 to lead its push into space. Chad Miller, who cofounded the University of Vermont spinoff in 2021, is stepping aside to take a chief technology officer role.
Verde initially set out to apply its lighter, flexible solar technology to terrestrial applications such as low-load commercial rooftops and the re-powering of aging solar farms using peel-and-stick adhesive backing.
The venture has successfully completed terrestrial trials and won funding from U.S. government agencies including the Department of Defense, but now sees a more compelling early market in space, particularly where shorter mission lifetimes could ease some of the durability challenges facing perovskite technology.
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"Perovskite solar technology is uniquely suited for space given its very high power to weight ratio, radiation tolerance, flexible form factor etc.," Verde chief commercial officer Skylar Bagdon said via email.
Whereas terrestrial panels usually need to last at least 30 years, many satellites in low Earth orbit are designed for missions closer to five years.
"The main reason we didn't pursue space sooner is frankly that we didn't see a large enough market opportunity until recently," he said.
"We had, perhaps an outdated, view of the size of the opportunity and it was many orders of magnitude smaller than the opportunities we saw on earth.
"However, that has recently changed with the rise of orbital data centers planned by many companies, high volume communication constellations, plans for lunar bases, etc."
Verde anticipates hundreds of gigawatts of demand for space solar power in the coming years as other megaconstellations are set to join SpaceX's Starlink in low Earth orbit (LEO).
Others also see a growing opportunity to provide more flexible and cost-effective alternatives to traditional space solar cells built with gallium arsenide semiconductor material.
In New York, mPower Technology is ramping up space-grade solar module production using commercial off-the-shelf silicon-based processes and equipment.
Customer backing
Verde says it has attracted investment from multiple venture funds and industry veterans, including Steve Bolze, the former CEO of GE Power (now GE Vernova after being spun off from General Electric), who joined the startup as an adviser in 2024.
Bagdon said Verde's last undisclosed funding round earlier this year was in support of kicking off customer-facing projects, including work focused on the space market.
"The main thing we are working on now is optimizing our materials, process and packaging for the unique temperature and environmental conditions experienced in space," he said.
But while there are technical changes the startup needs to make in how it builds and packages cells for operating in the space environment, he said the underlying technology remains the same.
"This is why we see a path to being highly competitive on price unlike many space solar technologies," he added, at "roughly 50x better power to mass ratio than silicon, up to 1000x better radiation tolerance than traditional silicon cells and greater than 100x reduction in cost when compared to high performance space cells like III-V," such as gallium arsenide.
He anticipates space becoming a large part of Verde's business within five years, though ultimately on par with terrestrial deployments once the company reaches scale.
The environmental angle
In addition to Verde's prior perception that space was a limited market, Bagdon said the venture did not take the industry seriously because it was unclear how it would fit a broader mission to combat climate change.
"However, it is now clear that there is a real opportunity to put power hungry infrastructure (like data centers) in space meaning that they are not creating issues with high usage of water, land, energy, grid infrastructure etc… down here on earth," he continued.
"We now firmly believe that low-cost space power does benefit the fight against climate change by avoiding the resource conflicts we are seeing here on earth. Not to mention that the continuous sun potential in some orbits eliminates the need for storage.
"Since the panels themselves produce more energy in space every day, and there is no need to manufacture massive batteries to store the power, the raw materials and resources needed to generate consistent power are far lower in space."
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