SDG News profiled ACE Inventor on 2 May 2025 as the 55th instalment of its series on clean technology companies.

The article began with the premise of BIPV itself. Where conventional solar bolts panels onto a finished building, building-integrated photovoltaics put the generating function into the building material. The initial cost is higher than standard solar, but a single component performs two jobs — generation and cladding — and requires no additional space, so it does not compete with the architecture.

Conventional silicon BIPV, however, is heavy, constrained in where it can go, and neither flexible nor transparent, which has kept its applications narrow. The article reported that ACE Inventor is approaching those limits by a different route, through hydrogel electrolytes and electrophoretic coating.

Three product families were described. The silicon-based ultra-lightweight thin-film cell can be fixed directly to a building wall without separate mounting structures, cutting installation cost while allowing colours matched to the design. The hydrogel cell combines colour, translucency and flexibility, making curved surfaces and indoor light viable and extending the range to smart blinds and agricultural polytunnels. A high-efficiency semi-transparent perovskite cell is the next step, aimed at the smart glass market.

The article also noted that ultra-light, ultra-thin construction reduces the carbon footprint of manufacture and transport — the point being that the company is working on materials and installable area, not output alone.

"We intend to open up solar markets that conventional silicon cannot enter," Joung said, adding that the company's goal is "to grow into a deep-tech unicorn in BIPV by 2030."

ACE Inventor Inc., founded in November 2022, develops ultra-lightweight building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) modules. Its core technologies are a water-based hydrogel electrolyte membrane, electrophoretic large-area flexible electrode coating, and ultra-lightweight curved module design using FRP and ETFE composites. The company operates a 50 MW annual production line in Paltan-myeon, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do, and holds KS C 8577 BIPV module certification together with ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001. Its patent portfolio includes seven registered Korean patents and one registered US patent, with 23 applications filed in Korea and abroad. Contact info@aceivt.com · www.aceivt.com

Related coverage and sources

· SDG News — 'Clean tech companies (55): ACE Inventor puts solar into building materials', 2 May 2025