Luxembourg energy startup Maana Electric is set to commercialise its mobile solar panel factories following a successful first equity investment round.
Headquartered in Foetz and with offices in the UAE and Netherlands, Maana’s Terraboxes promise to be a sustainable energy gamechanger.
Each facility fits into several shipping containers and can manufacture solar panels using local resources like desert sand, waste or, in the case of the moon, regolith.
The solution caught the attention of two business angels from Austria, Andreas Schoerkhuber and Stefan Lindner, and LRLUX, a family office in Luxembourg. The investment round was led by Belgian public fund Noshaq.
“With its clear and significant potential to positively impact the planet by reducing CO2 emissions, allowing more solar parks to be deployed and offering energy independence to some remote or isolated regions, Maana Electric sparked our immediate interest and attention,” Noshaq investment manager Dimitri Liquet said.
Stefan Lindner, CTO of CCE, an Austria-based photovoltaics company, said: “Ending dependencies, making renewables usable for less developed or secluded regions while simplifying technologies so much that they can be used by anyone and anywhere with nothing more than electricity and the locally available material. Those are key factors for realising a clean and sustainable future, on earth and in outer space. I am convinced that Maana Electric has the finger on the pulse and we at CCE are happy to be part of it!”.
Maana, which was founded in 2018 by Dutch entrepreneur Joost van Oorschot, has raised several million euros in R&D contracts to develop its innovative technology. This first equity funding will ease commercialisation of the Terrabox, for which pilot projects are already planned in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
In 2022, the firm has significantly expanded the size of its workforce and installed its first team at its Dubai office.
Maana Electric’s long-term vision is to transfer its technologies to the moon. Van Oorschot said: “The TerraBox will allow us to showcase what is possible with ISRU technologies. Not only will we be able to build an impactful and profitable business on Earth, but we will also test and perfect the technologies in order to get them ready for future use in space,” concluded Joost van Oorschot.
