Co-funded by European Union’s LIFE programme

Goals of the project

The LIFE SUNRISE project primarily aims to scale up and demonstrate Epishine's paradigm-shifting technology. This advancement will broaden access to innovative organic photovoltaic (OPV) solutions within the Internet of Things (IoT) context, and potentially, in Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) in the long term. The project is focused on offering affordable organic solar cells in massive volumes, with a minimal climate impact during production.

Buildings in Europe are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of emissions. Thus, reducing the carbon footprint of buildings is vital to achieving the goals set by the European Commission. This initiative is particularly important in addressing the current challenges in sustainable building management.

Another significant issue in the EU is the massive amount of battery waste, with 200,000 tonnes of batteries sold annually and less than 50% being recycled. This not only creates a major waste problem but also limits the deployment of ubiquitous sensors, especially indoors, which is a critical barrier that the IoT sensor industry needs to overcome. The LIFE SUNRISE project aims to help the European Commission accelerate progress in preventing and mitigating battery waste in the IoT sector. In the long run, this could lead to an increase in the production of renewable energy, including BIPV.

The project represents a pioneering effort in demonstrating the effective production of innovative OPV solar cells, specifically for IoT applications. It includes building a pilot facility to validate the production components and systems at an industrially relevant scale and under full operating conditions. Epishine will demonstrate the OPV technology in partnership with five European associated partners from Sweden, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland.
The success of this pilot approach is crucial for replicating and scaling the technology to other sites across Europe and globally. A successful LIFE SUNRISE project will enable Epishine’s vision of creating a planetary impact by enabling organic solar power to be accessible everywhere.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union can not be held responsible for them.