Arinna raises $4 million to solve the space energy problem

The space ambitions of nation states and billionaires demand better power sources, and a new startup founded by two Stanford Ph.D.s may have the answer.

Arinafounded by CEO Koosha Nazif and CTO Alex Shearer, said Wednesday that it has raised a $4 million round to build ultrathin solar panels from a brand new material developed during their PhD research.

The capital increase was made by SpaceCadet Ventures, with the participation of Anorak Capital and Breakthrough Energy Foundation. the company declined to share its valuation.

Arinna, named after the Hittite sun god and pronounced like arena, expects to test its first products in orbit before the end of this year. After certifying its photovoltaics in space, the company hopes to build a facility that can mass-produce the material on a megawatt scale in 2028.

“We are building certification panels to send to our first customers that will demonstrate that these 2D PVs have the efficiency and durability to survive in space,” Shearer said. “We’re going to prove it on a larger scale over the course of this time, and in doing so, we’re perfecting the processes necessary to make each layer of our PV produce them in a roll-to-roll fashion.”

Arinna makes solar cells specifically for spacecraft. In the pre-SpaceX world, when most satellites were custom-made, spacecraft used expensive but durable solar panels made from rare earth elements. With mass-produced satellites, cheaper silicon panels are used, but they degrade faster due to cosmic radiation.

Instead, Arinna’s technology is based on a new material – transition metal dichalcogenides, or TMDs, atomically thin semiconductors that have only been developed in recent decades. Arinna’s ultrathin solar technology enables highly flexible cells that the company claims are cheaper and more durable than legacy space solar panels.

“A lot of solar development over the years has resulted in small, incremental improvements to known and existing technology,” Ben Gaddy, a materials scientist and senior director at Breakthrough Energy, told TechCrunch. “This is a completely different class of materials.”

Nazif and Shearer met at Stanford while pursuing their doctoral research. Nazif’s work involved materials that could also be used to create photovoltaic cells as efficient as traditional semiconductors, while Shearer developed techniques to produce these cells at scale. “Koosha was very much the architect, and I’m the construction,” Shearer joked.

The company expects its photovoltaics to be much more flexible than traditional panels and 32% more efficient. Arinna’s technology also won’t require protective covers, will last 15 years in orbit and can be delivered within weeks, Shearer said.

These would be significant upgrades over current technology, as long as the company completes its orbit test campaign this year without any surprises and can implement its plans for mass production.

“What I’ve seen from all the space companies that we’ve invested in is that power is an obstacle, an obstacle,” Wiz Khuzai, a general partner at Space Cadet Ventures who led the round, told TechCrunch. “[Arinna] will be the unlocking for the next generation of energy needs in space.”