EU grants SEK 25M to Epishine’s Sunrise project

 

The Sunrise project by Epishine (Linköping, Sweden) is the first of its kind to demonstrate an efficient production of innovative indoor solar cells for IoT applications. The Sunrise project has now received a grant of SEK 25 million from the EU's LIFE fund, which will contribute to developing Epishine's production of indoor solar cells further.

The connected society requires a huge number of sensors, which historically relied on batteries. They continue to contribute to the 200 000 tonnes of batteries sold in the EU alone each year. Less than half of these batteries are recycled, which means that they are also a major source of waste. The market's reliance on batteries has historically limited the deployment of sensors everywhere, particularly indoors; a problem that the IoT sensor industry urgently needs to address. By bringing a resource and energy efficient indoor solar cell to market, Epishine will be able to assist the European Commission in accelerating the progress of preventing and reducing battery waste in the IoT sector. Solar cells replace batteries, reducing both environmental impact and costs, as the cost of changing batteries exceeds the cost of the solar cells several times over.

”Since properties consume a significant portion of our total energy consumption, it feels extremely important to be able to contribute to the necessary energy optimisation with the help of sensors. Together with our customers, we can offer solutions that use self-sufficient electronics to reduce energy consumption and thus costs in properties. Energy optimisation will be critical to ensure that the energy available can meet our future needs,” said Anna Björklou, CEO of Epishine.

The LIFE Sunrise project's main goal is to scale up Epishine's innovative production technology in order to increase the availability of organic indoor solar cells. Epishine's vision is to be a sustainability leader in the production and sale of organic solar cells, thereby accelerating the global shift to sustainable energy solutions. The LIFE co-financing fund requires projects to contribute to the implementation of European environmental and climate legislation, as well as the goals specified in the European Green Deal and the Paris Agreement.

“LIFE Sunrise will be an important step in our journey to provide an environmentally friendly power supply to the market. It is also a springboard for our scalable process to find more and more applications, fulfilling our long-term vision of planetary impact,” said Anders Elfwing, passion manager.

A successful LIFE SUNRISE project will enable Epishine's vision of creating planetary impact by making organic light power available everywhere. Epishine's long-term vision is to accelerate the progress towards net zero emissions in line with the EU's net zero emissions target of 2050, Sunrise is one of the steps the company is taking in the direction of achieving that.

Ulf Castenfors, CEO of GIA Sweden AB, has assisted in the application process and sees a significant environmental benefit in the progress of projects such as the Sunrise project: “That the Sunrise project received funding from the EU is completely in line with LIFE's purpose. The future potential in this project is a big reason to why we want to contribute to facilitate the process of financing.”

Caption: The Epishine team (photo: Epishine/crelle_fotograf)