SkyCool firm secures $5m funding
9th August 2023
USA: SkyCool Systems, the California-based manufacturer of radiative cooling panels, has secured $5m of funding to scale deployments of its patented technology.
The SkyCool technology is focused on reducing energy use and improving comfort. SkyCool has two product lines: a thin film which can be applied to outdoor sky-facing surfaces and a panel product used to passively cool fluids. The thin film product, when applied to a roof, can keep it cooler than the ambient temperature, even under direct sunlight. The panel product can significantly improve the energy efficiency of commercial AC and refrigeration equipment.
Along with its fundraise, SkyCool has announced the appointment of Arjun Saroya as its new CEO. Saroya boasts 20 years experience leading engineering, product, business and corporate development within the clean energy sector. As executive vice president of innovation at Lime Energy, he helped build a $140ma year industry leader in energy efficiency solutions for commercial businesses and utility programmes.
Eli Goldstein, the co-founder of SkyCool, will assume the role of CTO, while co-founder Aaswath Raman, now associate professor of materials science and engineering at UCLA, will continue to lead SkyCool’s technical advisory board. Johannes Douma of Nadel and Gussman, the company which led the seed financing round, will join the company’s board of directors.
Development
The $5m seed financing will accelerate the development and commercialisation of SkyCool’s panel and film products. The company is currently focused on deploying panels with grocery stores, refrigerated warehouses, data centres, and other buildings with persistent cooling loads.
The company’s panels were recently installed at a Schnucks supermarket in Illinois in a project with energy company Ameren. The Fairview Heights store is the first of its kind in Illinois, and one of only 20 such systems installed around the world. The system of panels integrates with the store’s existing cooling systems. Layered, radiative cooling films on the panels act like a mirror, reflecting up to 97% of sunlight back into the atmosphere and improves the operating efficiency of the air conditioning and refrigeration systems by as much as 40%.
Related stories:
$3.5m funding for radiative cooling technology – 9 February 2021
USA: SkyCool Systems, the manufacturer of radiative cooling panels, has been awarded $3.5m in funding from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Read more…
Cooling without electricity – 5 September 2017
USA: Scientists at Stanford University claim to have developed radiative cooling panels that can reduce the temperature of flowing water to 5ºC below ambient. Read more…
New material could reduce air conditioning load – 27 November 2014
USA: Engineers at Stanford University, California, claim to have invented a new mirror-like material which could reduce the air conditioning load of buildings. Read more…
