Twitter Pitch

Onyx Solar provides building integrated photovoltaics such as photovoltaic glass and facades to some of the world’s best architects.

Company Information

• ECO12 Award category: Startup
• Company name: Onyx Solar Energy S.L.
• Country of origin: Spain
• Company address: Calle Rio Cea 1, H6, 05004 Avila, Spain
• Founding year: 2009
• Company status: private company
• Website: www.onyxsolar.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/OnyxSolar
• Twitter: @onyxsolar
• Contact person: Manuel Vinuesa, Business Development, mvinuesa@onyxsolar.com
• CEO: Alvaro Beltran (Photo)

Elevator Pitch

We are an independent young company founded by two entrepreneurs. A small but global company devoted to the design of smart building solutions worldwide, working in more than 20 countries in five continents and able to earn the confidence of some of the most prestigious architects. We combine physicists, architects and engineers with excellence background on product and concept design development for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) and Green Building consultancy for bioclimatic architecture.

Onyx Solar is a technology driven company that develops cutting-edge smart building solutions for Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) to be used as building materials in facades, windows, roofs and skylights. These solutions consist in the replacement of conventional materials such as glass or ceramics for a material with photovoltaic properties, showing not only undeniable aesthetic value but also customized for each project, producing clean and free energy from the sun.

Milestones

• Funding: confidential
• Investors: Fundación José Manuel Entrecanales
• Employees: 2010: 15, 2011: 25, 2012E: 37
• Revenues: 2010: €1.2M, 2011: €2.6M, 2012E: €4.8M
• Customers: Foster + Partners, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF), Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill
• Smart green product: Photovoltaic integrated semi-transparent glass as tailor made solution (Photo). Main applications: skylights, ventilated facades, canopies, walkable roof, curtain wall and brise soleil. The photovoltaic constructive material developed by Onyx allows the customer to recover the money invested in its acquisition and installation with a payback time of 2 years. Comfort and safety are increased minimizing the amount of UVA and infrared radiations (filtered by the photovoltaic glass) which allows controlling efficiently the temperature of the building (optimizing the energy consumption of the building) without renouncing to the light provided for the semi-transparent photovoltaic glass. Available in different technologies, colours, thickness and sizes. One of the principal applications of this laminated glass is use as ventilated photovoltaic facade or roof for which a complete package of services and complementary products has been developed to facilitate the installation in any type of building.