As we mentioned in the prior post introducing the major themes from our initial research on smart glass 2.0 (SG 2.0), below are a couple of companies attempting to compete in the next iteration of the smart glass economy in Europe.
Unlike our post on SG 2.0 companies in North America, one of these companies is in the market with a product, giving us more visibility into the competitiveness of their solution.
We will remind our readers of last week's disclaimer: be aware of the startup bias. In the fight for survival, startups will rightly emphasize their product strengths and conceal their “opportunities for growth.” These opportunities would be related to device characteristics such as haze, color neutrality, dynamic range, switching speed, IGU integration, and more.
Without further ado, here are the companies in Europe making a push in the smart glass 2.0 economy:
Company: eLstar dynamics
HQ Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Website: https://www.elstar-dynamics.com/
Tech: Electrophoretic Light Modulator (ELM)
Description: ELM technology is the same “e-ink” tech found in the Kindle. ELM can switch in seconds by moving pigment particles. The pigment can be collected into tiny invisible dots (clear state) or spread across the active surface (tint state). ELM pigments can be created in various colors or energy bandwidths. The black pigment used by eLstar is color neutral and offers a 0.2% VLT in the tint state while maintaining a 70% VLT in the transparent state and a very high CRI of 98.
The nature of ELM also enables shapes and curves, a distinct advantage over smart glass 1.0 companies.
Like other smart glass 2.0 companies, eLstar targets automotive, residential, and architectural markets and seeks to be a technology supplier to the existing players in those channels.
Because ELM is a mature technology, they can leverage existing ELM display manufacturing capacity to create their device. This gives them an extremely low CapEx path to market, arguably a massive advantage to their cost competitiveness. Leveraging contract manufacturers and their existing equipment and processes should also result in a faster path to full-scale commercial production and give them orders of magnitude more production capacity at a dramatically lower cost.
The challenge to this approach is that the display manufacturing capacity is in Asia, so they have a logistical hurdle to ship thin glass to the markets where their fabrication partners are located. As noted in Jonathan’s smart glass post-mortem, integrating thin glass into commercial fabrication processes was no small hurdle for HALIO, as commercial fabrication equipment and processes are designed to handle much thicker and heavier 6mm glass makeups.
Going to market with a mature technology also gives them the advantage of having long-term reliability data, which is a huge barrier to overcome for new technologies trying to break into the avoid-risk-at-all-costs market of commercial façades.
Challenges aside, this should be an attractive investment opportunity, as all of an investor's dollars can go towards building a team, the product, and the market instead of building pilot and production lines.
Company: eyrise B.V., a division of Merck KGaA
HQ Location: Veldhoven, Netherlands
Website: https://www.eyrise.com/
Tech: Liquid Crystal Glazing (LCG)
Description: eyrise employs liquid crystal technology in their smart window products. The pigment-containing liquid crystals change alignment when a voltage is applied to the TCO coatings that sandwich the liquid crystal mixture. eyrise offers the fastest switching time, with near-instant switching in 1 second.
eyrise is the only SG 2.0 company with a product in the market. One of the things that stands out to us is that the dynamic range in their technology requires them to segment their product formulations into 3 VLT ranges:
50% (clear) - 13% (tinted)
44% (clear) - 9% (tinted)
37% (clear) - 4% (tinted)
While this wouldn’t qualify as a glare control solution, solar heat gain modulation is still substantial, enabling eyrise to market their product as solar control glazing.
Another thing that caught our eye is the stacking of LCD layers required to create the varying dynamic ranges. This stacking effect results in a thick exterior lite 15/16” (24 mm), which adds weight and requires a much thicker frame than standard IGU makeups. This also ensures the tech would likely never migrate to the North American market where the 1” IGU is standard for framing systems.
With limited dynamic range and thick, heavy IGU makeups, this technology could struggle to gain traction in the facade market and ultimately be limited to the interiors.
Conclusion
Smart Glass 2.0 companies are integrating valuable lessons learned from Smart Glass 1.0 into their business models, GTM strategies, cost profiles, and manufacturing strategies.
Where smart glass 1.0 was built on the same core technology (Tungsten Oxide), each of the companies we highlighted is using a different technology:
TYNT: Reversible Metal Electrodeposition
Miru: Tungsten Oxide (with low-cost spray coaters)
IR Dynamics: Vanadium Dioxide Nanoparticles
eLstar: Electrophoretic Light Modulator
eyrise: Liquid Crystal
The low power profile of these technologies also has the potential to enable smart glass without wires, where the power comes from an integrated battery and is recharged by a small solar array integrated into the frame or the IGU. This would significantly lower the cost of installation and lower the risk of water management as framing systems would not require holes to route wires back to a power cabinet.
The variation in technology, Go-to-Market strategy, cost competitiveness, and business models across these companies is intriguing and should lead to healthy competition and market dynamics that help smart glass become a more mainstream part of the glazing industry.
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About the Author:
Jonathan Hafemann is the Vice President Growth and Commercialization at NEXT Energy Technologies. He is an expert at developing scalable go-to-market strategies for early-stage property and climate technology solutions. His focus on sustainable solutions for the built market accelerates the transition to a net zero future. Follow Jonathan on LinkedIn
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