TALKING HEADS Neil Spann
Neil Spann is managing director of Power Roll Ltd
Solar goes thinner, lighter and cheaper Neil Spann believes that a new type of PV panel could change the way we view solar generation. And he has his eyes set on taking the technology around the world
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t was back in 1998 that an office building in the north east caused a stir. The Doxford solar office on the outskirts of Sunderland was the world’s first building fitted with building-integrated photovoltaic panels. Now, just six miles away from that ground-breaking development Neil Spann is confident his company can shake up the solar market once again, not just in the UK but also worldwide. Spann, the managing director of Power Roll, says his company has developed an ultra-lightweight solar film with a target manufacturing cost many times cheaper than existing flexible solar PV. “We can make solar panels as thin as crisp packets,” he told EiBI. “The technology is made using a base layer of plastic on top of which is a resin layer. Then goes a layer of microstructures that’s 0.3mm thick and contains thousands of solar cells. In a 4cm strip we have 50m of microstructures. This is the key to the solar film. Our solar cells are set up in a completely different way.” Apart from being flexible and lightweight Spann is confident that the panels will be considerably cheaper not only than traditional silicon rivals but also other flexible panels in the market. “Materials make up only a fraction of the cost of PV panels. It’s all about the process cost and we have a cheap way to manufacture them. Therefore, we are trying to combine cheap architecture and cheap materials.” Spann estimates that the film probably can be manufactured at four to five times more cheaply than silicon PV from China. “And there is the potential to make this up to ten times cheaper than existing flexible PV.” Spann concedes that the panels will not be as efficient as others on the market. “This is not our aim,” he states. “Silicon is around 20 per cent efficient. We are around 11 per cent but we do have a road map that will get us to around 15 per cent. From the economic perspective it’s attractive. It’s not market leading in performance but it is market
Spann: 'we can make solar film as thin as crisp packets'
leading in economics.” A further benefit is that the film is very light. “Silicon PV is around 11-12kg per square metre and ours is around 300 grams,” adds Spann. In addition, it’s easy to deploy as it directly adheres to the roof with a resin.” Spann can’t take the credit for the development of the panel. This he attributes to John Topping, a physicist with a background in packaging and work on stealth technology for the MoD. Expertise from both these fields led him to create the panels. So in 2012 he set up the company and set about looking for capital and others with commercial experience and belief in the product. This is when Spann joined the company. An accountant by qualification, he grasped the opportunity of joining the newly
formed Power Roll in 2014 after a spell with the north east-based domestic energy business EAGA. Since then the technology has been developed until the point has now been reached to push the product into the market. The company has recently secured £2.8m of investment comprising £2m of equity and £0.8m of convertible loans as part of the Future Fund scheme set up by the Government. “We can’t make the film at scale,” says Spann. “So one of the aims of the funding is to build a pilot line here in the north east and then get into commercial production. We expect to have a large-scale demonstration site up and running soon.” Spann is in no doubt that there is huge potential in the UK. “The Government’s Business department has itself estimated that there are around 250,000 hectares of available rooftops in the UK suitable for PV. Our target market is all those non-load bearing commercial rooftops, warehouses, agricultural buildings and sheds. Even along the walls of buildings and on blinds. For a 100kW system the payback is half that of silicon and the cost of energy is 40 per cent cheaper.” Spann admits that there are barriers to overcome to exploit the product’s potential. There is a scepticism borne out of the failure of a number of companies in the past. “We also need to demonstrate that it is not flimsy. We are not aiming for 25 years product life, rather 10-15 years. There is a school of thought that you need something to last 30 years to make it cost-effective. We’ve allowed for a full replacement in 15 years. And new technologies will rapidly emerge.” And it’s not just the UK that Spann is hoping to conquer. He has one eye on the Middle East and also believes the potential of India is huge. “Demand there is phenomenal,” says Spann. “Global PV installations in 2019 were between 110 and 120GW. In India they are talking about 300-400GW over the next few years. The PM came out recently and said they want to power the country through roof-top solar.” To reach these markets the company is proposing to license the technology to third parties in those countries who have strong local knowledge and manufacturing expertise. For the moment Power Roll’s primary aim is to get the manufacturing up and running in Sunderland. When that is achieved a new solar innovation could be on the way in the north east.
34 | ENERGY IN BUILDINGS & INDUSTRY | FEBRUARY 2021
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