Science and Technology
Mother’s kitchen Carvey Ehren Maigue It became an improvised laboratory during the pandemic. With universities closed and without access to equipment at Mapua University in Manila, the electrical engineering student began grinding spoiled ginger, filtering discarded carrots, and distilling fruit residue on his home stove. The goal was ambitious: Extracting luminescent particles from plants with no commercial value and converting this material into a panel capable of generating electricity. even without direct sunlightFrom this routine was born the AuREUS (Aurora Renewable Energy and UV Sequestration), award-winning technology first James Dyson Award Sustainability Award in 2020, chosen from 1.800 entries from 27 countriesAt the time, Maigue was 27 years old.
What seemed like a pandemic-related makeshift solution has turned into a serious proposal. Solar energy for cloudy days, with potential for use in facades, windows and vertical surfaces — areas where traditional panels can barely operate.
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This is where AuREUS attempts to change the game. The idea stems from a detail that many people observe, but almost no one transforms into technology. Maigue noticed this by looking at his own glasses: photosensitive lenses darken even when the sky is overcast. The light that triggers this effect is… ultraviolet (UV) — invisible, but present.
UV light behaves differently: it passes through dense clouds and spreads across urban surfaces. Some of it hits walls, sidewalks, and building facades, generating a “bath“Diffuse radiation that exists even when the sun is not shining.”
The problem is that conventional solar panels cannot capture this portion efficiently. AuREUS was designed to be a kind of “bridge“between UV and traditional photovoltaics.”
The technical inspiration came from a natural phenomenon: the aurora borealThe aurora’s glow occurs when particles in the atmosphere absorb high-energy radiation and re-emit that energy as visible light. In other words, nature takes something invisible (or barely visible) and converts it into light that can be perceived.
Maigue sought to replicate this logic with organic materials. He identified that certain vegetables and fruits, especially in colors such as red, orange, yellow and greenThey possess compounds capable of absorb UV e re-emit visible light (luminescent effect).
To test this, he experimented. 78 types of cultures. Of these, nine They showed more consistent potential for prolonged use, according to the development described by him.
The goal was not to “create a new solar cell,” but rather create an intermediate layer that would transform UV light into visible light so it could be captured by conventional photovoltaic cells.
AuREUS begins before the laboratory: it begins with waste. Maigue worked with rejected fruits and vegetables, material that would normally go to landfill, composting, or simply rot without any economic use. Part of this volume, in the Filipino context, comes from recurring losses associated with extreme weather events.
He cites a relevant excerpt to explain the availability of raw materials: between 2006 and 2013, climate events destroyed more than 6 million hectares of crops in the archipelago, with estimated losses of US $ 3,8 billionThis type of loss transforms harvested products into waste. AuREUS attempts to convert this waste into technological input.
The logic is straightforward: what is not useful for sale can be used for the extraction of luminescent compounds. And this creates an additional argument beyond energy: it creates a way to utilize a material that, in many cases, has no value.
The process described by Maigue involves steps that are simple in concept but demanding in execution:
The final material is described as translucent, with an appearance dyed lime green, and with sufficient durability for outdoor use.
The critical step is what happens when the UV light hits the panel. The particles absorb the UV radiation and re-emit it as visible light.
Next, following the logic of internal reflection (similar principle to that of optical fibers), this light “travels” inside the substrate to the edges, where a row of conventional photovoltaic cells It captures light and transforms it into electricity.
This is an important point of technical clarity: AuREUS does not “replace” traditional photovoltaics. It functions as a… UV concentrator/converter which powers common PV cells. The difference lies in the substrate and the way the radiation is collected.
The figures that Maigue releases regarding the use of the “solar panel without sun” are noteworthy because they change the rationale behind availability. Preliminary tests indicate that AuREUS could generate energy in almost 50% of the time, against 15% a 22% typical of conventional panels in the argument presented.
The difference here is not necessarily “more efficiency per photon,” but rather more useful generation hours by capturing diffuse UV radiation scattered on surfaces, including UV radiation reflected by sidewalks, walls, and neighboring structures.
At the prototype level, Maigue states that a panel developed in the apartment generated enough electricity to charge two cell phones a dayHe also mentions that the extraction of luminescent particles achieves 80% efficiency, with research aiming to get closer to 100%.
One detail with practical impact for cities: AuREUS can be installed. verticallyConventional panels have a preference for solar tilt and orientation. AuREUS, in theory, would work in walls, windows and facades, without needing to tilt towards the sun.
If validated at scale, this point directly relates to BIPV (Building-Integrated Photovoltaics): generation incorporated into the building envelope itself.
Solar energy economics suffers from a simple limitation: it needs a well-positioned area. In dense urban areas, rooftops compete with equipment, structures, and shadows. Facades, on the other hand, represent a gigantic surface that remains “stationary” from an energy standpoint.
The AuREUS – “solar panel without sun”, attempts to occupy precisely that idle space: vertical surfacesIn theory, this would allow office buildings, hospitals, stations, and residential buildings to leverage large facade areas to generate energy without changing the building’s footprint.
In this scenario, AuREUS doesn’t enter the market as a “pure” competitor to the traditional rooftop solar panel. It functions as an additional layer, expanding generation in locations where the conventional panel is not the most efficient or is not architecturally feasible.
Recognition came after persistence. Maigue tried to enter the project in the James Dyson Award in 2018 and was unsuccessful. He continued refining the technology and returned in 2020. On his second attempt, he won the sustainability award, with the final selection attributed to James Dyson himself.
The prize included £30.000 (about US$ 40.000 (at the time), funds were used to advance development and testing. In 2021, Maigue mentioned a pilot partnership with a multinational company in the sector of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) for initial commercial installations.
Applications are also mentioned for urban transport surfaces (such as the sides of buses and trains), as well as signs and posts — uses consistent with the advantage of AuREUS to take advantage of diffuse UV and operate outside the ideal angle of the sun.
Despite the strong narrative, there are still technical aspects that need further development for industrial evaluation:
These gaps do not invalidate the concept, but they define where AuREUS still needs to evolve: standardization, public energy metrics, durability, and raw material logistics.
The strategic value of AuREUS lies in addressing a real bottleneck: the dependence of solar energy on ideal conditions of direct visible light and well-oriented roof area.
If the technology proves itself at scale, it opens up two fronts that are currently difficult to combine:
Furthermore, there’s the production chain layer: converting agricultural waste into technological input. This alone doesn’t solve the energy economy problem, but it creates an interesting cycle where losses become raw materials.
In the end, AuREUS doesn’t need toreplace“Traditional solar energy is no longer relevant. It simply needs to function as an urban and vertical complement, capturing a type of radiation that currently goes unnoticed.”
It’s a gamble in relatively unexplored territory.UV as an indirect energy resource, transformed into useful light by luminescent materials and then converted into electricity by conventional photovoltaics.
With degrees in Journalism and Marketing, he is the author of over 20 articles that have reached millions of readers in Brazil and abroad. He has written for brands and publications such as 99, Natura, O Boticário, CPG – Click Petróleo e Gás, Agência Raccon, and others. He specializes in the Automotive Industry, Technology, Careers (employability and courses), Economics, and other topics. Contact and story suggestions: valdemarmedeiros4@gmail.com. We do not accept resumes!
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