How to sell rayton solar stock
EEVblog #1025 - Minute Physics + Bill Nye Promoting Rayton Solar
hi one of my favorite YouTube channels
is minutephysics run by Henry Reich he
does these awesome like very short not 1
minute but very short physics tutorial
explanation videos are typically
animated like this and they're
absolutely fantastic one of the few
channels that I watch every single video
from the subscription feed from so I'm a
huge fan but I got an email alert last
night and from the thumbnail of the
video and the title I knew exactly what
this one was about and I feel compelled
to respond and there's just a couple of
things here which I think really need
addressing and the public need to be
made aware of that I don't think Henry
actually are covered in his video here
now what it is is he's basically done a
sponsored video so he's accepted money
to produce this video from a company
called irate on solar they menu they've
got this new process technology for
manufacturing solar cells and they've
got a an equity crowdfunding campaign
it's not Kickstarter or IndieGoGo or
anything like that it's actually equity
crowdfunding which is a different thing
and they've already raised 7 million
dollars of a 50 million dollar goal and
they've basically paid him sponsored him
to do this physics a very cool physics
explanation video of how their
technology works which is great the
video in itself is great and the
technology is very cool about how you
can use a basically a particle in excel
ion particle accelerator to produce
really ultra-thin solar cells so it
really fits in with his channel of cool
physics and science explanations no
worries whatsoever and minutephysics
have actually been doing that quite a
few sponsored videos recently I haven't
had a problem with them I am a full-time
content youtube producer as well have
been for over six years and I understand
the need to actually you know to make a
living from this thing either through
sponsorship or advertising or
merchandise or brand deals or whatever
it is to stay afloat I'm a huge
supporter of content producers and I'm
here
supporter of minutephysics I've had no
problems with he's sponsored videos
recently but this one I have a bit of a
question with so rather than just
promoting a product or a brand or a some
educational thing or whatever which I
have no problems with this is actually
essentially promoting investment in an
equity crowdfunding campaign and one
which i think is actually very very
risky as I'll go into and sure enough at
the end of the video I Henry rightly has
a disclaimer and we'll just quickly run
through that the company that's trying
to use the particle accelerator
technology I talked about in this video
to make solar cells on a commercial
scale this company is called rate on
solar this is a challenging and
expensive endeavor and they're looking
for investors so they sponsored this
video to get the word out start engine
comm slash startup slash rate on solar
I'm not gonna make any endorsement I
mean I'm neither an investment expert
nor a solar industry expert but I do
believe strongly that we need both
political and technological solutions to
secure our planets energy future so I'm
happy to help
Reitan reach a broader audience to help
give them a chance for this clever idea
to succeed and I'm making a small
investment myself
hopefully they'll end up being one of
the many many pieces that come together
to provide a civilized long term future
for Humanity on earth and that's it and
great I'm excellent thank you for the
disclaimer and I'm all for that I am
definitely not anti-technology anti
science and here anti innovation any of
that sort of stuff and I as I've talked
about in my previous video on this I've
actually like I thought I think this is
cool tech and I think that they're you
know really doing some nice stuff but
Henry said that is not endorsing this
but unfortunately just the act of taking
the sponsored video making this video
and saying that he's an investor himself
it's effectively an implied endorsement
by doing this video I'm sorry that's
just you know it essentially is and by
the way they've got and when he shot
this video is only 5.3 million dollars
that they have raised and now they're up
to
to 7.2 million so I can only presume
that is a result of Henry's videos
people who have rushed in and invested
almost two million dollars on the back
of this unless they've got marketing are
somewhere else so while I'm all for
promoting cool tech research investment
all that sort of stuff
you've got to remember this is not a
university doing this or something like
that this is a commercial entity with
patents trying to raise 50 million
dollars to actually produce these solar
cells so it is a commercial endorsement
effectively what he's doing there even
though he says he's not endorsing it
just by doing the video I think he
effectively is unfortunately now this
isn't the first time that the company
has actually used a big name to actually
help fund and promote equity
crowdfunding campain here they actually
got Bill Nye the Science Guy to actually
do some promotional videos for them this
was like actually nine months ago it
came on my radar a couple of months ago
and I actually shot a second Channel
video it was on eevblog - it's a 17
minutes long which I'll actually link at
the end of this video hence why this
videos so long and it goes through my
initial reaction to the Bill Nye
promotion of this so they've actually
got very clever marketing to get a
reputable guy like Bill Nye to actually
promote them and now they got Henry from
minutephysics
who are potentially like they've got two
sides of the audience they've got Bill
Nye who might appeal to you less techy
type people and you've got the followers
of minutephysics who are you know clued
up people interested in physics and
other cool tech um so they're really
they're marketing hats off to the
marketing from rate on solar they really
know what they're doing so I'll pin that
17 minute video at the end of this but
here's the TL deal take away a summary
for this now rate on solar makes some
very specific claims so we'll look at
that very briefly and then look at the
risk involved so one of their first
claims
when you are wafer saw a regular silicon
ingot to produce regular solar cells
they you actually have a lot of loss
which is called kerf loss and that is
true it's you actually waste about 50%
of the silicon just saw in it you have
like I say a hundred and fifty microns
of silicon then 150 micron width saw and
then it just gets destroyed into dust so
there is a lot of waste there so they
are very correct that that is a thing
but thing that you have not been told is
that this curve loss or the cost of the
actual silicon are used in solar cells
is only about you can see the dark bar
down there that is the actual silicon
cost involved in producing the solar
cell module itself and which is about 15
to 20 percent of the cost so they have
actually made a specific claim here that
they are 60% cheaper I presume this is
going to be modules so that just does
not tally up how can you have a 60%
reduction in cost of a module which they
seem to be employing when the silicon
cost which is the only problem that
they're actually solving here is only 15
to 20% of the manufacturing cost of a
solar panel it does not add up
and the next claim is about the
efficiency they claim are their solar
panels have the potential potential to
achieve 24% efficiency versus 90% of
typical efficiency of current production
solar cells and this is roughly true I
will explain further on in the video but
some of the better panels on the market
now are approached in that 24 percent
figure like 22 percent things like that
so they're getting all the time well
they actually claim 25 percent are more
efficient overall than regular solar
panels with an actual efficiency of 24
percent in the panel so your regular
commercial solar panels are pretty much
catching up on the efficiency there so
I'll kind of you know like I'll still
give it to them oh say okay they might
be 10 20 percent more efficient than
current production panels no worries so
will
though they have a pattern granted on
this technology and they claim to have
exclusive use and all sorts of stuff
what they don't tell you is this is not
new technology and there are many other
competitors including our publicly
funded research which I cover further on
in my video we're doing a similar sort
of thing trying to solve the same
problem that 50% kerf loss in the
silicon the raw silicon manufacture
stage so the marketing sounds are really
good on this and they might be the only
players in the market but they're not
not by a longshot and there's many other
different process technologies that can
achieve the same sort of result without
the high cost on particle accelerator
that they're planning to use here just
be aware of that now the next thing is
that engineers like me are really easy
to convince just show us the data that's
it one thing you won't find on the rate
on so lot website is anything any data
whatsoever I cover that manufacture
little small little prototype further in
the video but there's absolutely no data
it is almost exclusively marketing with
all your regular infographics and
everything else and when there's no data
you've got to be really wary of stuff
like this so there's actually a third
claim here a hundred times less silicon
than the next competitor yeah fine great
but that's built into the 60% less
expensive to manufacture claim which i
think is not valid so I don't understand
that at all and the rest of it is
talking about market you know potential
and all the usual infographic type stuff
that goes along to any investment
campaign like this but one thing you
won't find on here is data hmm I don't
know if anyone can find it please tell
me down below now the last thing is the
risk in this just a general startup
technology like this runs it you know
like sub 10% or even a few percent
success rate so right off the bat when
you invest in equity
in a start-up it's already inherently
risky but let's actually look at the
Security and Exchange Commission's
disclosure of the rate on solar thing
this is effectively the fine print of
what you're investing here and if we
actually go down it is very very
explicit in the risks here and they are
huge have a listen first up they've been
running at a loss but hey that's not
unusual for a start-up company like this
so yeah no worries
now I'll post a link down below and you
can read this for yourself I won't bore
you with the details but what this is
basically saying is that the auditor of
the company's accounts which you have to
have when you equity crowdfunding is
that they have a going concern opinion
on its financial statement saying that
they are basically reliant upon getting
this investment otherwise they're at
risk of simply going bankrupt and out of
business and this here is an absolute
huge red flag I'll read this if the
company cannot raise sufficient funds it
will not succeed or will require
significant additional capital infusions
rate on salaries offer in common stock
in the amount of up to 50 million
dollars in this offering but may sell
much less currently seven million after
seven million is raised presumably
they've already done that but looks
about the following three million will
go to selling security holders even if
the maximum around mount is raised so
even if they raise their fifty million
dollars the company is likely to need
additional funds in the future in order
to grow and if it cannot raise those
funds for whatever reason including
reasons outside the company's control of
course such as another significant
downturn blah blah it may not survive
this is the opinion of the auditor for
this thing even if they get their fifty
million dollars if the company does not
sell all of its common stock it is
offering it will have to find other
sources of funding in order to develop
its business so if they don't get the
fifty million dollars they're not good
they have to find somebody else to
invest otherwise those people who've
already invested into this equity
crowdfunding campaign have basically
lost their money because they'll go out
of business and right here it says
they'll actually need thirty five
million dollars to create a fifty four
megawatt that they need to actually
start
manufacturing facilities say right off
the bat there it's 35 million dollars or
bust and this amount does not include
the money required to actually
manufacture the PV modules for sale so
wow this is a high-stakes game and then
I'll leave you to read all the rest
about all the regular stuff outside of
their control they're an early-stage
startup company so you know the
technology is not actually proving yet
on any sort of scale that makes its are
commercially viable they're dependent
upon this particular particle
accelerator which they having delivered
this year I believe they've already
ordered it and it's on its way so
developing new products encounters and
anyway there's all sorts of stuff which
is all fully disclosed here and it's
very very frank about the huge risks
involved in this thing and that's my
main reason for doing this video because
this has now been promoted by Bill Nye
the Science Guy and also minutephysics
to their minutephysics is four million
our subscribers it's like a huge market
and really they haven't linked in the
risk I know all this risk security
Exchange Commission stuff is actually
linked on the website it's all part of
the investment please read our office
circulate so it's all disclosed but I'm
just afraid that people will you know
take a minute physics as video as like
an endorsement and not really do the due
diligence research and you can't really
blame people for not going in and
reading all the details in here and
that's my fear I just wanted to make
people aware that there are huge risks
in investing in a company and technology
like this so anyway I won't go into any
more details I've got another 17 minutes
I'll append at my original video right
now and you can watch that thing that
was my initial reaction to the Bill Nye
the Science Guy promotion and nothing
much has really changed since no real
data has come forth it's easy to
convince guys like me just really show
me the data and that would help me feel
you know more warm and fuzzy about this
particular thing but I can't help
personally thinking that this is one of
the most riskiest investments that I've
seen in the
Tec space but this is not a university
research this is not publicly funded
research this is a commercial company
patent-protected company trying to raise
50 million dollars through equity
crowdfunding so there you go I just want
to make people aware of that and Wow
have they really raised 2 million bucks
since Henry made that video I think it
worked that was a wise investment on
their part
anyway it's $500 minimum investment by
the way and yeah I wouldn't touch this
which of bargepole
personally but that's just me do your
own research so basically while this
sounds like cool science and it is the
actual prospects for this I not terrific
I mean they're talking about it you know
a small improvement in efficiency
perhaps that may or may not be there
down the track and by their own
best-case marking investments a 60%
reduction in module cost which I don't
think they can get anywhere near because
they're only solving that one problem
with a silicon wafer that's it and
that's only like 15 odd percent which
takes it out of the module cost which
takes it out and down to sub 10 percent
of the module cost which is nothing
groundbreaking at all so yeah this is
not revolutionary stuff but still cool
science so there you go I hope they
helped out some people there with some
information and as I said I'll link in
the 17-minute video with more details at
the end of this because I am a huge
supporter of solar power renewable
energy all that sort of stuff I got I'll
link in a whole bunch of our solar power
solar energy videos I've done at the end
of this video if you want to check those
out so please don't say I'm anti science
any innovation all that sort of stuff
I'm definitely not I just think people
need to be aware of what sort of
investment that's actually been promoted
here and it essentially is being
promoted by default of Henry actually
doing this video in which I'm fully
supportive of him actually doing this if
you know he's obviously passionate it
fits his channel everything's just fine
and dandy the content was great any
he wants to do this that's fine I fully
support him it's not like I'm gonna stop
watching in a ragequit or something like
that I just you know see this as a
commercial investment promotion and I'm
just trying to put some facts across
there but I want to know what you guys
think about this do you think Henry
maybe made a mistake from posting this
video maybe did he cross some sort of
line for you in promoting is it a an
effective promotion of a commercial
investment type thing or do you have no
problems with it whatsoever I really
wanna know what you think so leave it in
the comments down below so I hope you
enjoyed that if you did please give it a
big thumbs up because that always helps
a lot and here comes the 17 minute video
I originally done nothing much has
really changed since then except they've
got Henry to promote it as well as Bill
Nye the Science Guy anyway
catch you next time okay I was gonna
link in the whole video but I realized
that a lot of the stuff I just go over
again that I've already explained in
this 17 minute video is supposed to be
shorter so I've really edited this down
and if you want to watch the full video
I did a couple of months back I'll link
it in it's over on the eevblog 2 channel
so this one's really edited for brevity
somebody on the EEV blog forum was
complaining me what is this it smells a
bit you know
BSE um well let's let's check it out
show anything so they've raised 3 Paul
most three point two million dollars of
their goal of 50 million dollars so
twenty three hundred and forty four
investors have so far contributed at
least five hundred dollars you're going
to contribute five hundred dollars so
hey good on them right they're raising
money and they've recruited none other
than Bill Nye the Science Guy and take
it away bill let's extol the virtues of
this wonderful new manufacturing
technology it can convert sunlight into
electricity with a couple of thin
silicon wafers in a sandwich a very thin
one for decades to get a thin piece of
pure silicon don't you had to saw it off
a thick piece of pure silicon
saw turns a lot of that silicon into
dust this process behind for making
integrated circuit chips for computers
or smartphones because the amount of
silicon used is so small but for
manufacturing big solar panels out in
the wide open spaces big green cars a
lot to waste a lot of pure silicon the
gang at rate on solar has to happen a
way to chip off an extraordinarily thin
piece of pure so the remark not was a
song with a subatomic particle an atom
smasher it doesn't smash atoms as such
it smashes protons into the a ton of a
chunk of silicon technicians can control
the depth to which these particles
penetrate with precision so they can
place the particles perfectly and once
the particles are perfectly in place
great time writing a nudge using a
little bit of heat just slice your
silicon is set free a little bit of pure
silicon goes a long way sounds great on
that'll do anyway so what they're what
they're doing which is really cool I
like the idea right the concept is
really good there is a lot of waste in
silicon wafers we'll have a look at some
other some data on that in a minute now
first of all this is not their first
attempt at actually raising money for
this thing they've been going there for
quite some time back in 2014 I think it
was 2014-2015 they ran an IndieGoGo
campaign unfortunately they only raised
five grand of their $50,000 flexible
gold not sure what they were going to
produce with their $50,000 but now
they're talking about this so thin that
they're flexible and everything else
okay fine but that doesn't seem to be
there maybe they've like changed their
focus maybe it used to be like like
flexible solar cells now they're just
you know concerned with like mass
producing and commercial and residential
rooftop solar cells just cheaper which
is fantastic and you know it looks stock
images of particle accelerators and
everything else once again like Uncle
Sam
Uncle Sam yes what
on earth why I have that on you web like
on your IndieGoGo campaign like American
jobs okay fine any ridiculous so they
didn't raise that so now but they've
raised now our weight raising serious
capital right 3.1 million they are on
their way to their 50 million bucks so
is it true that we waste a lot of these
silicon ingots for manufacturing solar
cells well well actual silicon wafers
which then go into solar cells yes it is
there's you know articles over here and
you know raw material of 50 percent over
50 percent is machined into dust and
stuff like that so yes it's true there's
a lot of wastage or what's called our
kerf loss in these in got manufacturing
when you slice the silicon wafers off so
you know have they come up with some new
whiz-bang technology to do this well yes
but they're not the only ones working on
this of course every man and his dog
working on silicon wafer manufacture for
solar cell production there's many
companies around the world out there
continually researching and optimizing
new ways he is back in 2015 an article
in physics dog or whatever it is on the
Fraunhofer Institute which are coming up
with a new way to actually produce and
in got to do this and if you go over
here it is the furthers their press
release for it back in 2015 you know
yeah it's trying to solve exactly the
same problem they're not the only ones
to do this and the way they're gonna do
it you're gonna read all the details for
yourself as did to basically produce
ingots in a different way instead of
using your regular silicon chip pure
ingots and stuff like that just
manufacture them differently and here's
another company called Applied Materials
this is a our per thing so this is a
government initiative and they're
working to actually do exactly the same
thing two seconds Google search just
turned up this sort of stuff so they've
got that they got a five million dollar
government grant buy it from ARPA so 60%
cheaper panels well they're getting
cheaper and cheaper
in Cheaper every year so yeah you've got
to stay ahead of the curve there but hey
we'll just take them at face value there
even though they've provided no evidence
for this 60% cheaper where they've got
that number from we just don't know it
now efficiency they claim to have the
potential to achieve a twenty four
percent efficiency versus the 19 percent
high level a single cell efficiency rate
well let's go and have a look at current
solar panels so the data is fairly new
from manufacturers and they 19 yeah okay
the bulk is going to maybe we'll take
him at that value in nineteen but
manufacturers like Panasonic and
SunPower for example they are up to
twenty one twenty two percent efficiency
already so you know as the march of
technology continues every year they're
just getting more efficient for a lower
price but hey we'll give them that will
we'll pay that one that typically 19
percent at the moment go to twenty four
percent
there's your twenty five percent more
efficient so yeah their number is you
know spot on but once again where is
their data well I don't see any data
whatsoever to back this up I don't see
any test results I don't see any
performance curves efficiency curves I
don't see any measurements at all in any
of this and like if you go into updates
there's just some update about we're
gonna buy the you know here's an
accelerator we're about to buy one if we
get enough cash please join data and
really change the world blah blah blah
and check this out if we go over to
their YouTube channel there is some
bizarre mix of what like how to get
along with your extended family at
Thanksgiving how to do a facial mask
what what what what's going on here
mixed in with we've got our accelerator
on the way I versus solar and I like and
his bill nighy back ten months ago he
did this apparently our presents and
there's some beauty tips and like mixed
in anyway there is one the only demo
they've got is this which is their solar
cell demo it looks like they've in bed
a solar cell in a condom and there
that's the little so they've produced
one little wafer but like where's the
measurements okay it might be three
microns thick show me the data all right
I'm not convinced unless we get the data
they're all talk they're all hype
they're all marketing and they might
have a cool pattern on a cool idea but
that doesn't turn into practical reality
they've gone into start-up mode right
tried to no they did an unsuccessful
IndieGoGo that was incomplete flop and
then they went AHA we can do equity
crowdfunding will pay bill will up
the money I don't know whether they got
the money from I don't know how much it
cost to get Bill Nighy on here but yeah
we get Bill Nighy and it'll go viral on
Facebook cause it's Bill Nye and and
great marketing that's off right they've
done a really good marketing job but
that seems to be all they have and
there's other companies there's at least
two I found and I could probably find
COO and be surprised if I couldn't find
half a dozen working on ways to reduce
the loss in silicon wafers because I if
you're wasting what is that 60% they
said as the cost menu reduce cost by 60%
just by eliminating the waste there's
companies working on that that's what
they do they eliminate waste and
inefficiency in their processes to
produce more viable products so this
without any data without showing that
it's manufacturable at scale at costs to
get this they too have provide no
evidence where they're going to get
their cost reduction from in actual
manufacturing terms and there's like
they've manufactured one little silicon
cell in a condom so yeah I don't know
flapping around in the breeze there it's
not a scam okay they're just yeah
marking in over substance
you've got to look into the details
before you invest in something like this
cuz T average panner to Joe average on
the street this is it sounds fantastic
invest in solar cell technology the
future and yeah good luck to them
they've already raised 2.8 million in
initial funding I so maybe that's where
that's what went to Bill Nye so that's
not all and of course huge risk in this
one I just don't see any data to back it
up lots of fancy infographics
that's if infographic central I mean
it's just as seen on all the usual crap
right I don't know good good luck to you
guys you look like you know it no it's
not a scam at all they've just got an
interesting idea that may or may not
turn out to be practical so best of luck
but if you're gonna invest in this do
your own research
you
