Kick-off for Solar Bankers’ test pilot with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority
Two weeks ago, the Solar Bankers team travelled to Dubai to kick off the pilot project it is conducting with the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) to test Solar Bankers’ core technology. The team spent three days (21–24 July) speaking to leading scientists from DEWA to discuss the scheduling for the project, testing and measurement techniques, as well as the location of the land assigned for the project.
Solar Bankers is delivering its hologram-based solar concentrator module to DEWA for performance testing in a high-temperature environment. In April, Solar Bankers was selected to participate in the Dubai Future Accelerators program (www.dubaifutureaccelerators.com/en) and spent 9 weeks working closely with other developers of emergent technologies from around the globe. At the end of the program, Solar Bankers signed a contract with DEWA for a test pilot in Dubai.
In addition to Solar Bankers’ patented refractive foil, the modules to be tested with DEWA feature a smart tracking system which makes use of a circular pivot to minimize the amount of moving elements required for adjusting module positions. This has particular benefits in desert environments, where dust and sand dispersed in the air quickly accumulate in the joints between moving parts and thus substantially reduce the durability of the tracking system. Solar Bankers is partnering with Mulk Holdings for the integration of the smart tracking system in its panel design.
In June, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) published an exciting article about our CTO, Carlo Maragliano, who is an alumnus of Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi, outlining the project. Read it again here: http://www.wam.org.ae/ar/details/1395302618804. Solar Bankers will be working closely with the Head of R&D in Solar Energy and Additive Manufacturing at DEWA, Marco Stefancich, another former Masdar scholar. ‘We are excited to work with Solar Bankers and we are looking forward to testing their technology in our facilities’ said Dr. Stefancich.
The Solar Bankers team was also invited by the Dubai Cryptocurrencies Club and Blockchain Technology Meetup to hold a presentation about the company’s experience with crypto-financing. Jane Zhang, the CEO of our Chinese partners ShellPay, joined the presentation via Skype.
