In this clip from "The High Energy Show" on Motley Fool Live, recorded on Feb. 8, Motley Fool contributors Zane Fracek, Travis Hoium, and Jason Hall discuss one company's breakthrough technology that could be commercialized and widely turn clean energy into a reality.
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Zane Fracek: There's a company called GO-OPV and they make this ORENgE technology, it's Orenge with an E. It's basically making a solar panel more like a film that you can put on top of anything and Pepsi (PEP 1.08%) is already actually using this both at distribution station on top of the building, but also on top of the trucks themselves. It's a really interesting tech. It obviously hasn't gone to the mainstream. I think it's still a private company. But it really is interesting because the main goal is to get the solar panels where they're needed, and then you cut out the transmission costs. On their website they'll have it on top of cars boosting the range on blinds instead of pulling over the curtain, you just have a solar panel on the side of the building, basically, powering your lights. Or, even things like a picnic bench, where you can plug in your phone or something like that. They have a lot of really strong claims that it's cost competitive with any type of renewable energy. They also say that it's completely organic and has the lowest carbon footprint. A lot of bold claims, but it's still an interesting tech and it more goes into just the innovation around solar panels, and how can we find more efficiencies and use cases there.
Travis Hoium: That goes to, Jason will remember a handful of companies, in the thin-film tech. I think this has been a dream over the last 20 years, is instead of making silicon wafers, which is what most solar panels are today. You make a silicon wafer, you cut it up, and then you put it together into a solar panel. The dream was always basically to print specifically on a flexible substrate. First Solar (FSLR 0.43%) is really the only company that's ever manufactured thin-film products at scale and made any money doing it. But this has always been the dream is that, I can put some stuff on my window here, and I can collect some solar energy. I have had over the last few years, a handful of those like fold-out solar panels, and they're flexible.
Jason Hall: Charge your batteries, your phones.
Hoium: You can charge a smartphone or something like that. But yeah, I would love to see something like that actually be commercialized and be viable. There's so many challenges in reaching the market. There was a subsidiary of NRG Energy (NRG -0.78%), I don't know if I remember the name.
Fracek: GO-OPV, that was the name of the company I was talking about, but I don't know about NRG.
Hoium: Well, there was a a subsidiary where they were selling stuff in like REI like these little battery packs with solar panels attached.
Hall: NRG was the big developer.
Hoium: Yeah and they tried to become basically a vertically integrated energy company and failed in doing that. There's been all kinds of cool tech a lot over the years from solar roads to solar sidewalks. I would love to see some of those actually.
