Despite of our arctic geographical location in Finland, we have a technology link for a global solar energy market. The advanced coating technology companies like BraggOne, Beneq and Picodeon offer solutions also for thin film PV and cell industry. It is worth pointing out that based on nanotechnology, all of these companies have wide-range of applications also for other industries than cleantech.
Picoden Coldlab laser deposition technology is a disruptive coating and thin film deposition technology. It can deposit virtually any type of layer onto any material. The company sells a solution which is a combination of licenses (IPR), hardware tailored for the application as well as engineering and coating services.
UPS of Picoden Coldlab is a combination of many advantages like excellent adhesion, material agnostic and feasibility on low temperature process which makes it possible to coat also heat-sensitive materials than plastics and paper. Key market areas inlcude cleantech (like PV’s, energy conversion and storage and even water cleaning), electronics (like roll-to-roll electronics, OLED’s and PCB’s) and optics. Cleantech pilots include for instance energy storage and fuell cell application with Ceram Hyd and the thin film production technologies for PV with the 1st round investors’ Scatec Solar.
The Coldlab technology is a generic tool and has a multitude of opportunties. Strategically, Picodeon has a chosen to focus on adhesion layers, where Coldlab film is used between two materials that don’t readily adhere to one other (targeting at low hanging fruits, where no other viable solutions available for customers) and 2D surfaces, like PVs says new CEO Jukka Häyrynen (previously Partner at Eqvitec Partners).
I met Jukka recently at Copenhagen Cleantech Forum, where he was busy with investor pitches. The company is closing its second round of EUR 3 – 5 million by the end of 2009. The use of proceeds is to build up an international presence in Japan and USA, increasing needed working capital for hardware (deposition units) as well as to increase technical sales and project management resources, said Jukka. In addition, company’s plan is to protect and extend further even an extensive IPR portolio (24 patent families, 150+ patents and applications).
The first round in 2008 was backed by Norwegian Scatec AS (a press release). Scatec AS is an incubator for clean energy ventures and a major owner of Scatec Solar, a turnkey provider and operator of solar solutions.
