{"id":207312,"date":"2026-01-28T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/lights-out-for-ambient-photonics-pioneering-solar-cell-technology-amid-funding-shortfalls\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T07:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:45:07","slug":"lights-out-for-ambient-photonics-pioneering-solar-cell-technology-amid-funding-shortfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/28\/lights-out-for-ambient-photonics-pioneering-solar-cell-technology-amid-funding-shortfalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Lights out for Ambient Photonics\u2019 pioneering solar cell technology amid funding shortfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lights out for Ambient Photonics\u2019 pioneering solar cell technology amid funding shortfalls<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/lookout.co\/lights-out-for-ambient-photonics-pioneering-solar-cell-technology-amid-funding-shortfalls\/story<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-28 07:35:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: lookout.co<\/a><\/p>\n

Quick Take<\/h2>\n

Ambient Photonics\u2019 low-light solar cell technology showed great promise for helping reduce reliance on single-use batteries in electronic devices. The company chose Scotts Valley for its headquarters and manufacturing facility, even as many technology companies were moving their production facilities overseas. Despite promising deals with major consumer electronics producers, the company fell short on funding and had to fold.<\/p>\n

Just last year, Scotts Valley-headquartered Ambient Photonics seemed on the brink of success, working toward its goal of reducing the need for single-use batteries in electronic devices. Its manufacturing facility was operational, its miniature solar cells were being used in a new keyboard from Lenovo, and it had raised more than $60 million in Series A funding. An April 2025 feature in Bloomberg touted the company\u2019s plans to ramp up production to millions of cells in 2026, seek its next funding round and open a second facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But now the company has shuttered, its website defunct, its facility closed and its equipment is up for auction. It\u2019s an anticlimactic end for a business that seemed to hold such promise, and had marked a new milestone for Scotts Valley as home to what Ambient said was the first high-volume low-light solar cell manufacturing facility in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founded in 2019, Ambient Photonics\u2019 proprietary technology focused on what are known as low-light photovoltaic slides, which are similar to the solar panels you might see on a building but in miniature form \u2014- closer to the size of a postage stamp or a dollar bill. The cells can harvest energy even in low-light conditions, which makes them well-suited for indoor conditions, and for devices like computer mice, keyboards and remote controls. At one point, a Japanese company was testing out Ambient Photonics\u2019 technology to power its carbon dioxide sensors.<\/p>\n

One of the lead investors in the company, At One…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lights out for Ambient Photonics\u2019 pioneering solar cell technology amid funding shortfalls https:\/\/lookout.co\/lights-out-for-ambient-photonics-pioneering-solar-cell-technology-amid-funding-shortfalls\/story Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":207313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lookout.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Ambient-Photonics-3.jpg?fit=2400%2C1601&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,129],"class_list":["post-207312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-energy","tag-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207314,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207312\/revisions\/207314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}