Project description
No roof, no problem for new plug-in solar PV system
Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on Earth. In terms of global installed capacity, solar photovoltaic (PV) energy is the third most important renewable energy source after hydro and wind power. Today, PV is entering the realm of plug and play systems. The EU-funded SolMate project designed a first working protype being tested in 30 city apartments. Designed especially for small city apartments, it does not require any hardware installation or even a roof to install the solar panels. The project is currently gathering feedback (technical and customer satisfaction). Advantages of SolMate is its price (30 % cheaper than its closest competitor) coupled with a savings of up to EUR 300 per year in electricity costs.
Objective
Efficient Energy Technology GmbH (EET) is a spin-off of Graz University of Technology, Austria, founded in May 2017. The founding team consists of three members, Dr. Christoph Grimmer (CEO), DI Stephan Weinberger (CTO), DI Florian Gebetsroither (COO/CFO), currently employing 12 additional people. Two strategic investors joined the company in 2017 (500kEUR investment). A strategic manufacturing partner have also been identified.
The core innovation of EET is the patented, non-invasive measurement technology “NetDetection”, a high frequency measurement, that allows the smart utilization of photovoltaic (PV) power without any hardware installation and costs. A first working prototype, called “SolMate”, which exceed TRL6 already, has been developed and is presently being tested in 30 real life installations in city apartments. Feedback from these 30 field installations is being collected (both technical and customer satisfaction), analysed and will be implemented in the version of SolMate which will be placed in the market in near future.
The main customer benefits and USPs of SolMate are the user friendliness (unique and simple plug-in-and-play PV system including energy storage) as well as the unmatched price (30% cheaper than any closest competitor product in market; customers will save €100-300/year electricity costs by using SolMate). Further advantages over state-of-the-art systems include small system size (designed for city apartments) and smart power control through EU-patented technology. CO2 savings are 93% compared to average electricity mix.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
8055 GRAZ
Austria
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.