Today more than ever clean energy production is at the centre of political and cultural debate. Among others, there’s photovoltaics which, using technology, tries to deal with days when the sky is less clear. This is how AuREUS project by Carvey Ehren Maigue, electrical engineering student at Mapua University in Manila, represents a step forward.

Winner of the James Dyson Sustainability Award 2020 in the Sustainability category, it consists of a new material made of waste crop-based compound that can be applied in the form of panels to an existing structure or surface to collect UV light and convert it into visible light to generate energy. Both in sunny and cloudy days. In fact, according to a series of test conducted, AuREUS can produce electricity 48% of the time, compared to 10-25% in conventional photovoltaic cells.