A New Era of Energy: Decentralization, Digitization, and Design

Redefining how energy is generated, used, and integrated.

Solaires Team | Victoria, B.C | July 30th, 2025

This convergence marks a new chapter in the energy transition defined by decentralization, digitization, and design. It’s not just a matter of improved efficiency or incremental upgrades. These shifts are reshaping the very structure of our energy systems and catalyzing a wave of product innovation across sectors. In residential settings, we’re seeing the rise of rooftop PVs and integrated smart home technologies. Meanwhile, wearable and consumer devices are increasingly powered by ambient light and other alternative energy sources, reducing reliance on traditional energy infrastructure. companies which can pick and choose their testing conditions.

At the heart of this shift is a simple but powerful idea: that energy generation and consumption should be more intelligent and seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. 

Decentralization in Energy: Power Where It’s Needed Most

Historically, energy systems were designed around large, centralized power plants feeding electricity to passive consumers. That model is being rapidly replaced by decentralized ecosystems where generation is distributed, devices are interactive, and users are more involved, actively monitoring and managing energy consumption through smart devices, choosing energy-efficient appliances and technologies, and adjusting usage to align with renewable availability. This active engagement empowers consumers and drives demand for new technologies. By adjusting usage to align with renewable availability, it fosters collaboration across industries such as IoT, energy storage, and materials science. Together, these collaborations accelerate innovation and enable significant leaps in clean energy solutions.

Decentralization is happening not only at the grid level, but also within individual products. As energy generation moves closer to the point of use, new possibilities emerge for device-level autonomy. Generating energy exactly where it’s needed reduces transmission losses, lowers infrastructure costs, and enhances system resilience. Photovoltaics, in particular, play a central role in enabling this shift. As the cost of PV technologies has fallen and the efficiencies have improved, solar energy is no longer confined to utility-scale farms or rooftop panels. Lightweight and efficient photovoltaics, like those developed at Solaires, are unlocking a new layer of energy generation that is directly embedded into products such as smart door locks, CO and VOC sensors, remote controls, keyboards, and many more. This device-level energy autonomy paves the way for greater independence from traditional power infrastructure, one application at a time.

Powered entirely by our lightweight PVModules, this VOC sensor operates without external power sources.
Attribution: Solaires Enterprises Inc.

Digitization in Energy: Smarter Systems, Seamless Power

Digital transformation is reshaping energy systems. Photovoltaics, energy storage, IoT, and embedded electronics are advancing together, each accelerating progress in the others. Sensors and cloud platforms are making energy systems smarter and more adaptive. Devices can now optimize performance in real-time based on usage patterns, grid conditions, and user behavior. This intelligence requires integrated low-power solutions, distributed storage, and connected infrastructure, reflecting cross-industry collaboration toward clean, efficient technology.

Smart energy management systems are compelling in microgeneration contexts. Devices that power themselves from ambient light, for example, no longer need traditional charging infrastructure. They can operate autonomously. Solaires PVModules enable this kind of self-sufficiency, powering devices directly for indoor and ambient light. When combined with technologies like low-power microcontrollers (MCUs), power management ICs (PMICs), and IoT platforms, these systems can store energy they need and intelligently communicate when and how it’s used.  This kind of intelligence is crucial for scaling the next generation of low-power electronics, especially in sectors like smart homes, health tech, industrial monitoring, and sustainable architecture. 

At Solaires, this intersection of photovoltaics and digital intelligence is at the heart of what we do. Our PVModules are designed to integrate directly into digital systems. This enables self-charging sensors, extended battery life, and new use cases where traditional energy sources would be too bulky or cost-prohibitive.

Design in Energy: Making Clean Tech Fit Real Life

Design is often missing from energy conversations. As PV and other cleantech solutions enter consumer products, design becomes essential. Not only in terms of physical form, but in how technology fits into real-world environments and user experiences. 

Today's innovators aren’t just seeking performance; they want materials that can adapt to their vision. That's why design flexibility is critical. By prioritizing design, companies can accelerate adoption and reduce friction in the product development stage. This is especially true in industries where aesthetics or spatial constraints previously limited the integration of energy harvesting technologies. 

Our PVModules are designed to be adaptable, making integration seamless across a wide range of products and use cases. Our team works closely with partners to support implementation, ensuring the technology fits both their design vision and functional requirements. This is helping build a new standard for clean technology that’s deeply embedded in the products and systems people use every day.

One practical use case for Solaires’ PVModules is their integration into keyboards, enabling self‑sustaining operation powered entirely by light.
Attribution: Solaires Enterprises Inc.

The future of smarter, connected energy

The convergence of PV, storage, smart systems, and embedded electronics is more than a technical evolution. It’s a structural and cultural shift within clean technology, allowing for faster iteration, more collaborative development, and deeper integration of energy solutions into society. 

This shift also helps bridge the historical divide between energy infrastructure and product innovation. As technology stacks become more interoperable, startups can tap into shared platforms, modular components, and digital interfaces to experiment more freely. Hardware teams can now work alongside software developers, designers, and energy experts to create solutions that are not only cleaner but also smarter and more responsive to human needs. Our progress towards mass production, alongside growing partnerships, is based on the idea that the future of energy is collaborative and intelligent. We’ve already seen our technology power applications ranging from smart door locks and VOC sensors, proving that integration of PV is no longer limited by form or function. 

As the industry continues to evolve, one thing is clear: innovation in clean technology will no longer come from isolated advances. It will come from dynamic collaborative momentum between disciplines.