Sistine Solar raises funds to expand installation of SolarSkin product nationwide

Energy Foundry is proud to announce a $3.2 million investment in Sistine Solar, which is scaling up deployment of its SolarSkin product. Energy Foundry, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and Thin Line Capital join current angel investors in this round.

A SolarSkin installation in Massachusetts

SolarSkin is an innovative graphic overlay that transforms any traditional solar panel into one that blends with a roof. Using design to capture the world’s imagination, Sistine helps homes and businesses around the nation go solar with style.

“Sistine Solar is providing a sleek and affordable solution that can address aesthetic concerns for residential and commercial solar panels,” said Jason Blumberg, Managing Director, Energy Foundry. “The innovation lies in the elegant interplay of materials science, color science, and solar photovoltaics to achieve an unlimited range of colors and designs while still allowing a very high amount of light transmission to the underlying solar panels. We are excited to support this company’s future growth and the new solar markets their innovation will unlock.”

“Sistine Solar is proud to welcome new equity investors Energy Foundry, MassCEC and Thin Line Capital,” said Senthil Balasubramanian, Founder and CEO, Sistine Solar. “We strongly believe in the transformative power of design – and know that the adoption of design elements will make solar panels as ubiquitous as cars and cellphones. This new round of investment, and support from Energy Foundry, will help us expand our growing installer network and drive expansion of the company across the United States.”

Aesthetics hold the potential to vastly multiply solar adoption in the United States. The Department of Energy estimates that there are over 13 million households around the country that are part of Homeowner Associations (HOAs) where aesthetics is often a barrier for solar approval. SolarSkin is proud to thus far have a 100% approval rate among HOAs in multiple states.

“Aesthetic solutions for solar panels have historically struggled to take off because they have been prohibitively expensive, often double or triple the price of a traditional solar installation,”  Balasubramanian said. “Sistine has spent five years in deep product testing and development at multiple third-party labs such as the National Renewable Energy Lab to develop and offer SolarSkin at under a 10% premium to traditional solar. For an average homeowner, adding SolarSkin to the rest of their system costs no more than the price of a Macbook Pro.”

Sistine will use the new funds to expand its network of partner solar installers around the country. To date, the company has completed installations in 10 states, which include a wide variety of use cases including homes in HOAs, new build communities and historic districts. The installations include roof styles and colors that span the spectrum of roof tones and shingle types. The company has received interest from over 200 solar installers nationwide and has a rapidly growing pipeline of homeowners looking to purchase SolarSkin.