Heliatek and Looop announce exclusive partnership to market and install award-winning organic solar films in Japan
Heliatek GmbH (Dresden, Germany), a global leader in the development and manufacturing of organic solar films, and Looop Inc. (Tokyo, Japan), an energy service provider focusing on renewable energy, have signed an exclusive partnership to market, deliver, and install Heliatek products throughout Japan.
Heliatek’s solar film HeliaSol is ultra-light, flexible and ultra-thin and with a carbon footprint of less than 10g CO2e/kWh one of the greenest energy generation technologies. Through its integrated backside adhesive, it can be easily applied to a variety of surfaces without the requirement of a substructure. This makes HeliaSol the perfect solution for applications that could not be imagined with conventional PV solutions because of weight or surface restrictions. There is a huge potential of building rooftops with limited load bearing capacities, façades, rooftop materials that may not be penetrated or non-straight building shapes. Therefore, the solar films can help accelerating the solar deployment by accessing unused surface potential in Japan to promote decarbonisation and Green Transformation (GX).
Heliatek's organic thin-film solar cells have the highest power generation efficiency among those available for mass production. Looop has conducted Japan's first demonstration test of organic thin-film solar cells in an industry-academia joint research project with Ritsumeikan University since October 2020 and confirmed that they have the same power generation capacity as CIS (Copper indium Selenium) solar modules that are already in practical use.
With a carbon footprint of less than 10 g CO2e/kWh, HeliaSol is based on the greenest of all solar technologies. HeliaSol does not contain of toxic raw materials like heavy metals and does not use any scarce materials. Even the disposal at the end-of-life is easy and environmentally friendly. With HeliaSol, CO2 savings start more than 10x times earlier than with inorganic solar solutions, basically within just a few months. HeliaSol is considered to be a solar solution for the future, independent from raw material scarcity challenges, and fundamentally green.
Sales will commence in Japan by the end of this fiscal year, after successful completion of the required IEC4 certifications. The representatives of both companies commented on the collaboration as follows:
Heliatek CEO Guido van Tartwijk: “We are very pleased to be teaming up with Looop for marketing and delivering our innovative solar films to Japanese customers. Our HeliaSol products deliver an immediate independency from grid price variations and are perfectly suited for roof tops and facades that are unfit for normal solar panels. We believe that together with Looop we can further accelerate the green transition in Japan, because HeliaSol unlocks the surface potential in the heavily urbanised areas and is perfect fit for buildings that are not allowed to carry normal heavy solar panels, because of typhoon regulations for example. We are looking forward to working with Looop to leverage our knowledge and experience to promote our products in Japan as a solution to the challenge of introducing renewable energy to start decarbonisation more than 10 times faster than with regular solar solutions.”
Looop Inc CEO Soichiro Nakamura: “We are very pleased to be working with Heliatek, one of the world's leading organic thin-film solar photovoltaic manufacturers. Looop announced its Renewable Energy Power Declaration in April 2022, expressing its determination to contribute to energy self-sufficiency and cost reduction through the promotion of domestically produced renewable energy. We are convinced that lightweight, bendable organic thin-film solar power is a long-awaited technology, especially in landless Japan, where it can be installed on pillar-less domed buildings, bus stops, and plastic greenhouses. We look forward to promoting Heliatek's panels in Japan while leveraging our track record and knowledge of supplying renewable energy in a single package.”
Caption: Heliatek CEO Guido von Tartwijk (right) and Looop CEO Soichiro Nakamura at the signing ceremony (photo: Heliatek)