Last week we had the great pleasure of participating in the Web Summit in Lisbon, the worlds largest tech event. This year there were a record amount of 70 000 participants. Peafowl Solar Power was selected as an Alpha-startup which gave us the opportunity to showcase our technology with our first-ever live demonstration of our plasmonic cell in action.
The setup was basic yet clearly demonstrates the potential of our cell:
A small 4x4cm2 transparent solar cell powered three sensors measuring temperature, humidity and light intensity, as well as a wireless transmitter that sent the data to a computer displaying the values in real time. Measurements and transmissions were made every 10 minutes – in the intervals between the energy produced by the cell was stored in two supercapacitors.
For readers who are more interested in the performance of our cell prototype than the work environment of stand A306, the green graph below displaying light intensity would be the most interesting one. At no point was the light intensity above 170 lux, yet the cell delivered sufficient energy for uninterrupted measurements and data transmissions throughout the day. For comparison, surfaces in office environments typically receive 320-500 lux.
Apart from this exciting live demonstration, we also had the opportunity to pitch as a Showcase among startups selected for their disruptive concepts and potential to solve large problems, and our CEO and founder Jacinto Sá even won the first round of the pitch competition for early-stage startups. By the quarter-finals, however, the constant networking throughout the day had taken its toll on his voice abilities and we had to settle for being among the top-50 startups at the event. A fair trade-off, considering the exciting connections that networking resulted in!
