Building versatile, ultra-compact, intelligent, retractable solar awning systems

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I kicked off renewables and climate change as a theme for Scatter Brain earlier this week with my chat with Patch’s Cofounder, Brennan, who is building a carbon credits marketplace.

Today’s conversation is about rethinking a dominant physical constraint in solar energy production today. Roof space has defined how we make and use solar panels. The panels are huge and dumb. What step changes can we unlock in solar energy applications and generation if we build flexible and smart solar systems that work around the constraint of physical space?

Today’s chat is about tackling that question with Xponent Power’s CEO, Rohini, who has designed a new type of versatile solar awning system, starting with RVs as an application. I was introduced to her by Dayslice’s CEO, Ishita Arora, who I talked to on Scatter Brain about building products for SMBs.

Background 

Rohini did her undergrad in Materials Science at IIT Chennai in India and came to the US in 1992 for Masters and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. She has authored several publications.

“My first job was at Texas Instruments designing semiconductor chips for automotive applications. TI sponsored me for an executive MBA at the Wharton School, which gave me a window into the world of finance that intrigued me,” she told me.

Interest in solar energy 

“I was doing equity research at Citigroup after my MBA. I got an offer to work at a solar wafer manufacturing company MEMC,” Rohini said, reflecting on her career. “Those were early days in the solar industry, and I really wanted to be involved in the climate change revolution.”

She spent the next decade at MEMC, which later became SunEdison, a leading solar industry player. At SunEdison, she led several M&A transactions, cumulatively worth over $4B in value, including acquiring a company that enabled SunEdison to enter the residential market to its foray into wind energy.

Changes in the solar energy industry

Rohini said, “When I started working in the solar sector, polysilicon, a core building block for solar panels, was $400/kg. Today, the price is 1/10th that. China has contributed tremendously to the cost reduction of solar globally”.

China will be the largest total emissions producer in 2022. It is also the most effective player in reducing the cost of solar energy production and storage.

The tariffs imposed on goods from China, especially in the solar sector, have led to US companies diversifying their supply chain, and India has been a beneficiary.

She mentioned increasing awareness of the impact of climate change and the desire to address it as the two other big changes in the past decade.

Origins of Xponent Power

Working with startups inspired her to go back to her technical roots. With a vision for a product that can enable solar adoption in mobility, she founded Xponent Power in 2016.

“It was clear to me that there were many markets with a need for solar, but a lack of roof space limited the deployment,” she said.

Xponent Power develops an ultra-compact and sensor-enabled intelligent retractable solar system that can be mounted on any application without a roof.

“We aim to enable widespread solar adoption in markets that cannot be served by traditional solar solutions ranging from mobility applications and disaster relief to roof-constrained residential applications like apartments and tiny homes/ADUs.”

Space as a constraint for solar energy production 

You cannot have solar if you don’t have roof space.

She explained the status quo in how solar panels get made and how she wants to reimagine how the panels work.

Main insight: “This limitation eliminates markets with limited roof space, like vehicles, boats, apartments, mobile homes, tiny homes, etc.”

Current paradigm: “Traditional solar systems are static and lack intelligence. It’s an unintelligent piece of equipment designed to sit on a roof for 30 years,” she said. “They are built to withstand hurricanes and typhoons and hence very bulky and need secure mounting.”

New paradigm: “Instead of building systems to withstand hurricanes, why don’t we detect these conditions using sensors and machine learning and retract to safety instead? Then we could design lightweight, ultra-compact, and more durable panels that can be retracted into a really small enclosure, which can then be easily mounted on any surface, even just a wall.”

She explained further that sensors could detect wind speeds, and the awning could be retracted to safety when it exceeds a threshold. That means we no longer need heavy solar panels with aluminum frames and ballasted structures.

“Essentially, we have made solar smart, enabling multiple new markets.”

Finding the initial market

Rohini told me they spent months talking to people in the military, RV, and EV spaces.

“The product-market fit we saw in the RV industry was truly outstanding.”

I was confused why she was going after RVs, so I asked her to contextualize the RV market :

Large market: “11 million households own an RV. 1 in 12 US households own an RV. Over 500,000 new RVs are sold every year. Many owners spend over $100,000 to purchase a vehicle. It's the cost of a home in some parts of the country,” she told me. “They use these vehicles five or six times a year and are passionate about this lifestyle.”

Willingness to pay: “Every home has a grid, so solar for a homeowner is optional. That’s why solar is sold to homeowners more as a financial instrument with a good ROI, which is what it really is. Hence there is tremendous price pressure on residential solar. The average installed price for residential solar is around $3/W compared to $6/W for RV solar systems.”

They want the freedom to go anywhere, not be limited by power and are willing to pay a premium for products that enable that lifestyle, per her.

Need for power generation: “A typical RV has a lot of appliances - TVs, refrigerators, microwaves, cooking ranges, etc., all need power. People like to run their AC when camping, which consumes a lot of power,” Rohini said. “The average consumption is 15 to 20 kilowatt hours a day. However, there is insufficient roof space to install enough solar to power everything in an RV. We can double or triple the power generated from the roof.”

Poor alternatives: “Most people use generators when they are off the grid. Generators are loud, polluting, and require constant refueling. California’s Air Resource Board (CARB) is taking notice. They just enacted a regulation that will ban the use of generators in an RV starting in 2028. 12 other states are considering similar bans. If that were to happen, no viable alternatives today could enable power generation on a vehicle to power appliances off-grid.”

That’s a compelling case!

RVs can be a great wedge market with price-insensitive buyers to get started until you bend the cost curve for entering other verticals with larger markets and more frequent solar usage.

Building the hardware

She said the system seems deceptively simple. You push a button, and in 30 seconds, you have a 15 feet long, 7 feet wide solar canopy that unfolds from an enclosure that is only 6 inches in depth.

“It was not a trivial problem to solve. From the custom design of our PV (photovoltaic panel) laminates to the actuating mechanism to our intelligent control systems, we had to innovate across multiple domains to make this happen.”

I asked her what she thinks about making her panels compatible with various models across RV brands.

One-size-fits-all system: “When we started working, the first thing that really hit us was the variability across RVs - variations in roof profiles, different placement of various features on the wall and roof, varying locations of structural members behind the RV wall and roof, variations in the construction materials used, etc. - we were literally dealing with thousands of makes and models of RVs,” she said. “We had to design a system that could be universally installed.”

She breaks down the biggest product challenges :

Retrofittable: “It had to be securely mounted onto a vehicle that was driven 60-70 mph on a freeway without any existing knowledge of the structural members on the vehicle.”

Compactness: “Transportation standards in many states dictate that an appurtenance mounted onto the wall of an RV cannot protrude more than 6” from the side of an RV. We needed to design a system that could pack over a kW of power into an enclosure that was less than 6” in depth. Our ultra-compact, lightweight, and still robust PV laminate passed all PV certifications needed.”

“The most important part of our innovation lies in our control systems. At the core, this innovation is about making solar smart and dynamic, enabling its use in applications where solar would not have been possible.”

Go-to-market

B2B model: “This is targeted towards consumers buying a new RV. A customer purchases the new RV with an Xpanse upgrade directly from the dealer,” she said.

B2B2C model: “This is targeted for customers who already own a vehicle and are interested in getting an Xpanse system retrofitted onto their vehicle.”

Both models are primarily a B2B play engaging with manufacturers, dealers, and installers nationwide.

Branding

Given the GTM approach, I was curious about how she thinks about building a consumer brand. She thinks it is critical for a lifestyle product like theirs.

Earned media: “What has surprised me is how much brand recognition we have received since we launched. Just google “RV solar awning.” It blew my mind when I saw this - the first 20-30 links are all references to our product. We spent some money before the launch, but at this point, our marketing spend is close to zero.”

They have been featured in over 40 different magazines worldwide.

Designing the supply chain

Rohini said the design was developed in California. Most of the pilot systems are assembled by them in their lab in the Bay Area.

“Our longer-term plan is to source the components either locally or overseas but assemble them in the US. 80% of the RV’s sold in the US are manufactured in the midwest, so it makes sense for us to establish our assembly operations there - something we are looking into.”

They recently engaged Clean Energy Associates (CEA), a US-based supply chain and manufacturing services firm, to help establish and ramp manufacturing.

Growth opportunities 

“The beauty of our technology platform is its versatility and usability in many applications.”

They are already getting interest from tiny home manufacturers, homeowners, and emergency relief power applications.

“We plan to scale in the relatively price-insensitive RV market first, reduce our cost and then go after the more price-sensitive market like residential solar,” she said.

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