Mega Green Accelerator: Saudi Arabia-Based Mirai Solar Expands Solar Energy Use Beyond Conventional Applications "The investment in cleantech needs to accelerate greatly for the energy transition to become a reality."
By Tamara Pupic
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The Mega Green Accelerator is an initiative by PepsiCo, one of the world's largest food and beverage companies, SABIC, a Riyadh-headquartered global diversified chemicals company, and 12 other strategic partners. In its inaugural 2024 edition, it selected eight startups to participate in the program, including Mirai Solar, a Saudi Arabia-based solar technology startup that specializes in expanding solar energy use beyond conventional applications.
As a technology lead at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Solar Center in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Michael Salvador has been focused on moving transformational energy technologies out of the lab and into the real-world applications. It is through his work in this domain that he realized that while conventional, high-efficiency solar panels were being developed for maximum power output, they were made very heavy and bulky, which limited their application to rooftops and solar farms.
"In order to greatly accelerate the energy transition, we understood that we need new form factors that would allow the usage of solar energy, everywhere," Dr. Salvador says. "For this purpose, we developed the Mirai Screen, a one of its kind lightweight and multifunctional solar panel."
This is how Dr. Salvador became the co-founder and CEO of Mirai Solar, a Saudi Arabia-based solar technology startup that specializes in expanding solar energy use beyond conventional applications. Its flagship product—the aforementioned Mirai Screen—is now in a pre- commercial stage, with its competitive advantage being its design that allows it to serve a dual purpose, i.e. providing optimal shading while also generating electricity. "The Mirai Screen offers ideal shading and electricity generation for a variety of applications, like agriculture, building integration and electric vehicles charging," Dr. Salvador explains. "We are developing Mirai Screen to achieve commercial readiness within the next 12 months. We do this through in-house research and development and pilot demonstrations at customer sites. Currently, we have three active pilot sites in Saudi Arabia. We have also built pilot demonstrations in Germany and the USA."
In terms of funding, Mirai Solar has so far been supported with grants from KAUST, but it has also achieved revenue from its pilot demonstrations. However, Dr. Salvador admits that there are still quite a few roadblocks in terms of its offering being more widely accepted by the private sector at large. "Given that we are providing a source of renewable energy, a significant barrier is the low cost of electricity, and the lack of incentives for businesses to adopt renewable energy solutions," he says. "We need to develop a financing scheme for businesses, similar to a purchase power agreement to alleviate the barriers due to the significant capital investment. We hope that the Mega Green Accelerator can help us shape such a financing scheme through contacts with relevant stakeholders like banks, credit institutes, and so on, that have a strong sustainability program and mission."
In the meantime, with his eight-strong team, Dr. Salvador will be focused on scaling up Mirai Screen and building a pilot manufacturing site in the Kingdom. "In parallel, we have plans to intensify the deployment of our product through stronger customer engagement," he adds.
Dr. Salvador also reveals here that he and the Mirai Solar team are working on its seed funding investment strategy, while adding that the lack of capital remains the main hurdle to the growth of cleantech startups. "The entrepreneurship scene is flourishing with a growing interest especially from young generations," he says. "There are several initiatives that promote entrepreneurship focusing on sustainability thanks to many government and academic initiatives. However, there is still little venture capital going into cleantech. The investment in cleantech needs to accelerate greatly for the energy transition to become a reality."
'TREP TALK Mirai Solar's Dr. Michael Salvador shares his tips for entrepreneurs in the sustainability domain
Aim for a local focus "It is important to engage closely with local stakeholders. The relationships take time to pay off. Plus, having a local presence will help you understand the market and the needs of the customers."
Adopt an effective decision-making approach "Base your strategy on decision points (go/no-go) that focus on early market adoption, instead of a long product development. Cleantech solutions need to be economically sound in addition to helping customers achieve their environmental targets."
