Solbian sponsor of Japanese sailor Masa Suzuki

New partnership between the Turin-based manufacturer of flexible solar panels Solbian and Masa Suzuki's sailing team.

Solbian announces a new partnership with team Milai, the company officially joins sailor Masa Suzuki as his sponsor for the upcoming Globe40. In a few weeks, Japanese Masa Suzuki will set sail aboard the class40 Milai for the Globe40, an 8-stage Round the World race departing from Tangier, Morocco and ending in Lorient, France.

Masa has already participated in the Mini Transat 2019 and the Rolex Fastnet Race in 2021, the Milai team will be the only one to represent Japan in the Globe 40. As expected, energy is fundamental during a 30,000 mile journey, a 518 Wp solar system of SR series panels is installed on Milai to power the onboard equipment. The monocrystalline high efficiency SR cells are sandwiched by two patented metallic grids. The metallic grid on the front of the cell is specifically designed to maximize the current harvesting. On the rear of the cell a second grid provides extreme resistance to cracks and over-bending. The grids essentially form a double shield that acts as a conducting reinforcement to the solar cell. Extreme crack and bend tolerance are built in, providing a guarantee of high efficiency and unmatched durability.

"We are thrilled to face this challenge with team Milai and to be able to support Japanese sailing through this project. A round-the-World represents a challenge for technical sponsors as well, a perfect stress test for their technologies that are subjected to extreme and ever-changing atmospheric conditions." said Luca Bonci, Chief Executive Officer of Solbian.

Masa Suzuki, skipper of Milai, commented on the new partnership: "I am really happy to have installed Solbian solar panels. They have a special antiskid finishing and work very well on board. I'm sure the 30,000 mile sailing ahed of us will be wonderful with these panels".