BlueDot Photonics

BlueDot Photonics coats solar glass so a panel captures more of the sun. The treated glass converts light silicon uses poorly into light it uses well, adding a double-digit boost to output, shielding the panel from UV damage, and running it cooler, all as a drop-in replacement for the glass a manufacturer already buys. Nothing about the assembly line changes.

Solar efficiency creeps up around half a percent a year, and that pace sets the ceiling on how cheap solar power gets. Steps that big usually arrive as a new cell architecture, which means a new factory and a decade. This one arrives as a sheet of glass, which is the only part of a panel that is already a commodity and already swappable. The gain compounds across every panel it touches, on manufacturing capacity that exists today.