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Custom Solar Solutions

PowerFilm designs and manufactures custom solar cells, panels, and power solutions for energy harvesting, portable, and remote power applications using proprietary thin-film or high-efficiency crystalline PV technology. 

 

We develop high-quality custom solar solutions for IoT, transportation, military, and consumer applications. 

Markets We Serve

Truck, plane and forklift between stacks of shipping containers

Transportation

We don’t just offer solar products for the transportation industry. We design, engineer, and manufacture total solar solutions.

Man sitting on top of a building on computer with a graphic of connected IoT devices

Internet of Things

Devices used in IoT are often extremely low power, light energy outdoors and indoors can be used to extend or replace traditional batteries, making long-term maintenance-free solutions possible. 

Two soldiers with a foldable solar panel

Government & DoD

Since PowerFilm’s beginning over 30 years ago the US Department of Defense has been our largest lifetime customer. We offer man-portable, vehicle, and basing solutions

boat at a dock

Marine

Whatever kind of boat you have, our solar solutions ensure your boat or lift batteries are ready to go when you are.

man and woman in a golf car

Golf

By installing a solar panel on the existing roof of a golf car, you can drive up to 50% farther and keep the batteries in your golf car up to 50% longer. 

Assorted thin-film Electronic Component Solar Panels

Design A Custom Panel

OEM business is our business in both B2B and military projects. We will work with you on design and engineering to create a custom energy solution that fits your needs.

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Case Studies

Over the past three decades, we have developed custom solutions to meet the needs of many different companies in industries, including telematics, boating, IoT, the United States Military, and space exploration.

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The Horizon Blog

Have you subscribed to our blog yet? We publish monthly, helping you make sense of all things solar.

About Us

PowerFilm’s proprietary manufacturing provides custom amorphous silicon panels that work in any light environment, including the indoor, industrial lighting of many IoT sensor applications.

 

Celebrating over thirty years in business, PowerFilm is proud to be one of the few US-based solar manufacturing companies operating today.

 

The Soltronix brand brings PowerFilm expertise, innovation, and commitment to US-based semi-flexible crystalline silicon solutions. Soltronix brings you complete solutions to fit your application, including panels, encapsulation, semi-flexible substrates, proprietary PowerBoost charge controllers, and the collaboration and customer service you expect from a US-based company.

News

Post #134 How We Designed a Custom Solar Solution for GEM Low-Speed Electric Vehicles-1

PowerFilm’s rapid prototyping capabilities, 35-plus years in the industry, and collaborative culture resulted in taking the initial concept to a manufacturing-ready solution in under a year.

GEM's new, powerful solar option turns heads for all the right reasons enabling drivers to reduce their carbon footprint and drive their cars farther.

The Current Q1 2023 Newsletter Text on a desk with a keyboard, clipboard, pen, and mug of coffee

Each quarter we gather the latest updates giving you a snapshot of what's new with PowerFilm. Enjoy the Q1 highlights!

Blog Posts

A gray and black rendering of GEM car with a custom solar panel on top and a blue geometric shape background

How We Helped GEM Design a Custom Solar Solution for their Low-Speed Electric Vehicles

The Low-Speed Vehicles (LSVs) market continues to grow as individuals, families, college campuses, theme parks, and resorts opt for more efficient and environmentally conscious ways to get around. Increasingly these vehicles are even becoming the primary means of transportation.

To get the most value from an LSV, you need flexible means to charge and maintain your batteries.That’s where solar can make a difference.

Reefer Solar Panels Help Save More Diesel Than You Might Think Title Graphic

Reefer Solar Panels Help Save More Diesel Than You Might Think

Refrigerated or frozen goods are kept at the proper temperature using transportation refrigeration units (TRUs) which allow for bulk transport but have a measurable effect on the amount of diesel a vehicle consumes. 

 

You might think you'd need a sizable solar panel to affect diesel consumption, but a small, cost-effective solar panel has a significant impact.

Blog Post 126 Solar Panels for ThermoKing Precedent and Carrier Vector Reefers Title Graphic

Solar Panels for Thermo King Precedent and Carrier Vector Reefers

Today’s post dives into three key benefits solar panels provide to trailer refrigeration units (often referred to as reefers).

 

Solar panel benefits include: 

  1. Enabling trailer telematics
  2. Improving system reliability
  3. Reducing jump-start service calls
A blue dial with a needle to the far right and a light blue background, and the blog post title text overlayed on a semi-transparent white rectangle.

Choosing the Right Solar Charge Controller: How to Optimize Your System and Increase Efficiency

A complete solar solution includes a panel, a storage device, a battery, and a charge controller to manage the power generated by the panel and stored in the battery. 

 

At its most basic level, a charge controller maintains your battery’s health and ensures you aren't damaging it. Charge controllers work in several ways to regulate the voltage sent to the battery, and you can throw away enormous amounts of energy if paired with an inappropriate or inefficient controller.

A man in a red shirt driving a white golf car

How To Solar Power Your Golf Car The Easy Way

Golf cars are a fixture of golf courses allowing players to finish more quickly and course owners to turn over more daily rounds. Increasingly golf cars are also an effective and popular way to get around communities where golf cars and other low-speed electric vehicles (LSEVs) are often the primary means of transportation.

While battery-powered golf cars have many advantages over gas-powered vehicles, they must be charged. To get the most value from a battery-powered golf car, you need a portable means of charging and maintaining those batteries. 

That’s where solar can make a difference. 

Events

Sensors Converge

June 20 - 22

We will be exhibiting our Internet of Things solar solutions at the show and would love to meet if you attend. If you're at the show, stop by one of  our VP of Engineering Brad Scandrett's presentations. See speaking sessions.

Location: Santa Clara, California

Booth: 962

Contact: VP of Marketing & Sales, Kip Johnson

Email: kjohnson@powerfilmsolar.com

Phone: 515-292-7606

Learn more

NREL - 2023 PV Everywhere Workshop

August 7 - 8

This workshop gathers researchers, industry representatives, new entrepreneurs, user communities, and PV advocates across application areas to explore opportunities and challenges. Seeking to identify shared features among the BIPV, VIPV, product integrated, expeditionary energy, aerospace and space applications and other markets that could drive advances in performance, reliability, and scale, supporting the advance of PV into markets that have previously been constrained by capability, cost, or imagination.

Location: Golden, Colorado

Contact: President, Dan Stieler, PhD

Email: dstieler@powerfilmsolar.com

Phone: 515-292-7606

Learn more

IFDA Solutions Conference

September 11 - 13

We will exhibit our Trucking Solar Solutions for commercial vehicles and trailers, including Trailer Refrigeration Units (TRU)telematicsAuxiliary Power Units (APU) battery banks, liftgate batteries, and the truck battery itself. If you're at the show, stop by. We'd love to meet you.

Location: Fort Worth, Texas

Booth: 320

Contact: Account Director - Transportation Solutions, Julia Stone

Email: jstone@powerfilmsolar.com

Phone: 515-292-7606

Learn more