Solar Technology: Startup Sunmaxx and MAHLE Group Cooperate

The current extreme weather situations with heavy rain show that climate change is omnipresent, and a swift transition to renewable energy is inevitable. The startup Sunmaxx and the MAHLE Group have combined their expertise to make PVT systems even more efficient through innovative thermal management originally developed for the automotive industry. In an interview, Dr. Wilhelm Stein, founder and CEO of Sunmaxx, explains the background and discusses the cooperation with MAHLE.

Dr. Stein, thank you for taking the time for our interview. You have been active in Dresden since 2021, and in 2022, you started cooperating with the MAHLE Group. That’s quite a rapid development. How did you manage to find a corporate partner so quickly?

The cooperation came about because I proactively approached MAHLE to see if they would be interested in such a development. The topic landed on the desk of MAHLE’s Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) arm, now MAHLE New Ventures GmbH. They found the topic exciting and passed it on to the business unit for thermal management. The topic was well-received there too, leading to many inquiries and discussions. Eventually, the topic was presented to MAHLE’s management, which decided to invest.

You use efficient, highly developed systems from MAHLE for the thermal management of PVT modules. What makes these systems stand out?

MAHLE’s thermal management comes from the automotive sector. In electric cars, batteries are actively cooled or heated using specially designed cooling plates or heat exchangers. This active thermal management enables the high mileage of batteries, extending to several hundred thousand kilometers.

MAHLE is one of the world leaders in this field. Accordingly, the heat exchanger for our solar application was further developed, adapted, and customized by an engineering team at MAHLE in collaboration with us.

What does your cooperation with MAHLE look like today? Are you developing the technology together further?

Yes, we are currently working on a next-generation PVT module with even better heat exchanger technology. This will take some time. The first cooling plate has already achieved a world-record efficiency of 80% for PVT modules of this type. We believe we can improve even further, not only due to the heat exchanger but also thanks to our patented, highly efficient integration process.

Were there any particular challenges in the context of the cooperation, and how did you overcome them?

MAHLE is a large corporation with 70,000 employees, while Sunmaxx is a young, small company. Naturally, there were challenges, but we have managed them well so far.

The technological advantage we have gained through MAHLE’s technology is enormous and elevates PVT technology to a completely new level. This is particularly due to the excellent engineers that MAHLE has made available for our project.

Finally, can you give us an outlook? What topics in the energy sector are particularly occupying you right now? Are there any current plans at Sunmaxx that you can share with us?

We continue to work on expanding our technological lead. There will be news on this soon, but unfortunately, I can’t reveal it just yet.

Contact

Website: Sunmaxx

LinkedIn: Dr. Wilhelm Stein