Technology

One materials platform, four environments.

SPAL is a multilayer nanomaterial architecture applied to a surface that already exists. What the layers do depends on where the surface is — a rooftop, an orbital array, a façade or a vehicle skin each destroy energy differently, so each gets a different stack from the same core science.

Explore the architecture

Pick an environment.

Select a variant, then select a layer to see what it does and why it is there.

Active · commercial wedge

SPAL for installed solar panels

A rooftop or utility panel loses energy four ways at once. SPAL is a single film that addresses all four, applied on top of the existing glass with nothing inside the panel changed.

Layer

Select a layer

Why it is there

The problem

A panel is a one-time purchase that quietly underperforms for 25 years.

Four losses run on every installed panel, every day. None of them are addressed once the panel is on the roof.

~4%

Front-surface reflection

Light bounces off the glass before it ever reaches the cell.

3–7%/yr

Soiling

Dust and grime in Indian conditions, and considerably worse through the dry months.

0.4–0.5%/°C

Heat de-rating

Panels run past 60°C in the field. Silicon loses efficiency for every degree above 25°C.

Spectral

Thermalisation and sub-bandgap loss

UV arrives with more energy than the cell can use and becomes heat. Infrared passes straight through.

Loss figures are typical industry ranges and vary by site, interface and climate. Sources: peer-reviewed field study, Scientific Reports (Nature), 2025; India composite-climate rooftop data.

The physics

Where the energy goes.

A solar cell converts one band well and wastes what falls either side of it. Above the bandgap, the excess becomes heat. Below it, the photon passes through unconverted. The spectrum is different in orbit, which is why the space variant is retuned rather than reused.

Silicon PV · AM1.5

Sea level · atmosphere-filtered · 300–1200 nm
UV / blue lost as heat Visible converted by the cell Near infrared below bandgap, passes through SPAL SHIFTS BOTH INTO THE USABLE BAND 300nm 1200nm
High-energy photons thermalised
Band the cell actually uses
Sub-bandgap, unconverted
Recovered by quantum-dot conversion

On Earth the atmosphere absorbs part of the spectrum before it arrives, which is why the terrestrial curve is uneven.

Pilots

See it applied.

Two pilots are running: SPAL on installed solar panels in India, and SPAL-ARIA for orbital and lunar surfaces. Both funded by us.