TAMPA, Fla. - Verde Technologies, a Vermont-based startup that once dreamed of covering your roof with lightweight perovskite solar panels, has decided that space is a more promising market. Because why deal with building codes and homeowner associations when you can just launch your product into orbit?
Former Honeywell executive Jean-Noël Poirier will take over as CEO on July 8 to lead the charge into the final frontier. Co-founder Chad Miller, who launched the University of Vermont spinoff in 2021, is stepping aside to become chief technology officer. Nothing says confidence in a new direction like the founder moving to the C-suite.
Verde's original plan was to use its lighter, flexible solar tech for terrestrial applications like low-load commercial rooftops and repowering aging solar farms with peel-and-stick adhesive. They've successfully completed trials and even won funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. But apparently, the allure of space - where satellites only need to last five years instead of the pesky 30-year lifespan expected on Earth - was too strong.
“Perovskite solar technology is uniquely suited for space given its very high power to weight ratio, radiation tolerance, flexible form factor etc.,” said chief commercial officer Skylar Bagdon via email. Translation: It's light, tough, and bendy - perfect for the vacuum of space, where no one can hear you complain about durability.
Verde initially didn't pursue space because the market seemed too small. But then the orbital data center craze happened, along with megaconstellations and lunar bases. “We had, perhaps an outdated, view of the size of the opportunity,” Bagdon admitted. Yes, outdated by about a decade.
Now Verde sees hundreds of gigawatts of demand for space solar power, thanks to companies planning to turn low Earth orbit into a giant server farm. They're not alone - mPower Technology in New York is also ramping up space-grade solar module production using off-the-shelf silicon.
Verde has attracted investment from venture funds and industry veterans, including Steve Bolze, former CEO of GE Power, who joined as an adviser in 2024. The startup's last undisclosed funding round earlier this year was for customer-funded projects, including a mystery space customer.
Bagdon says Verde is now optimizing its materials and packaging for space conditions, but the underlying technology remains the same. “This is why we see a path to being highly competitive on price,” he added, claiming “roughly 50x better power to mass ratio than silicon, up to 1000x better radiation tolerance than traditional silicon cells and greater than 100x reduction in cost when compared to high performance space cells like III-V” (that's gallium arsenide for you non-rocket scientists).
He expects space to become a large part of Verde's business within five years, eventually rivaling terrestrial deployments. Oh, and there's a climate angle: putting power-hungry data centers in space avoids water, land, and energy conflicts on Earth. “Since the panels themselves produce more energy in space every day, and there is no need to manufacture massive batteries to store the power, the raw materials and resources needed to generate consistent power are far lower in space.” So space saves the planet - who knew?