EEVblog #1025 - Minute Physics + Bill Nye Promoting Rayton Solar

A response to Minute Physics's latest video promoting the Rayton Solar equity crowd funding campaign.
Dave looks at Rayton Solar and it's investment risk and practical viability and asks the question, should Minute Physics have promoted this? And they roped in Bill Nye too!
Let me know what you think, did Minute Physics cross a line in doing a paid promotion of a risky commercial equity crowd funding campaign?

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[zombiedude]

Bill nye is what you get when someone mostly educated in one field gets famous through talking about general science. The media (and general public) then treated him as an expert in every field. It likely got to his head. So higher scrutiny may be warranted with claims these people make.

[RobinKaja]

Well a real problem is that the fact that the video was sponsored wasn't really well disclosed. When i watched even the "Includes paid promotion" wasn't even added. So i had really no idea.

[winstonsmith]

If this is such a great idea, why do they need to crowd fund it rather than obtaining venture capital?

[galileo_rs]

Let me summarize this video: Money gets you "reputable" pundits and if you invest enough into marketing you can sell any junk you like.

[oldmandandan]

Thank you thankyou THANKYOU for showing SEC.GOV's EDGAR Search Engine results in your video for this organization. It's the very first tool I point people to when they ask me about stock investments, right after I ask them to honestly assess their personal risk tolerance. Once again, thankyou, Dave!

[cbful]

"it's easy to convince an engineer, just show them the data" (so true)

[PlasmaHH]

The whole idea looks nuts, for the amount of money to manufacture one of their cells you could probably manufacture hundreds in the conventional cheap process.

[TodayIFoundOut]

First off, I'm a big fan of your work. Just wanted to send a quick note that our team recently toured the place where the particle accelerator in question is being built and spent about 15 straight hours or so chatting with the CEO of Rayton and some of the scientists/engineers involved, both formally and informally (in which the CEO towards the end told us some very cool stuff they're working on not publicly known yet that would address some of your concerns). In any event, I can tell you, while as with any startup, particularly in tech, there is huge risk, this most definitely is not a scam company. These guys are super passionate about what they're doing and have a quite exciting and well thought out road map, with some insanely smart and well credentialed people working hard on it all. (As I mentioned, some of whom we chatted with extensively.)

Again, I'm not endorsing anyone investing or anything like that- it's a tech startup and is inherently massively risky as a result as an investment, and there are certainly a boat-load of equally dedicated and well credentialed competitors trying to accomplish the same thing in various ways, as you mentioned. And even great ideas often fall flat with new startups for various reasons, even if they work perfectly in practice. Just wanted to address the point about the whole thing just being a scam. That's definitely not the case here. We'll be doing a much deeper dive on what they're doing in an upcoming video in a few weeks than Henry did. Pretty awesome tech and some good people involved; whether the company works out or not... Who knows? :-) -Daven

[KaveendraVithana]

Bill guy points to the wastage in sawing silicon and says “this process is fine for making integrated circuit chips for computers and smart phones, because the amount of silicon used is so small”. WOW, he supposed to be a mechanical engineer, right? He just forgot that small chips requires more saw lines on a silicon wafer, which correlates to more waste, not the other way round.

[ubidefeo]

Dave, your integrity is one of your best feats.
The world definitely needs more of you.
Unfortunately snazzy marketing wins people over.

[egrand]

Henry from Minute Physics will now have to be careful with all his future videos and activities...since he's an investor all his work can come under extra scrutiny and will be subject to claims that he's trying to promote the company and boost his investment.

Legally he should add a disclaimer to any future video that's about solar cells stating that he's an investor in a company trying to make solar cells, and technically he's probably obligated to go back and edit any past videos since they're still up on youtube and he's still making money on them.

[jetraid]

Maybe the can cut the silycon witout waste but what is the energy cost of running a particle acellerator to do that?

[LucioFarenzena]

Rayton -> too much marketing and no solid FACTS. I agree with David: Show me the data!
It is a pity that Minute Physics is endorsing (yes, they are...) this funding.

[moonoovie]

The odd placement of that photoshop glow on their banner page is most confusing above anything else. All of the panels are facing away from it, and the clouds are being lit from off-camera, so it's definitely not the sun.

So... I have no idea what the glow is supposed to be. Magic?

[Foreststrike]

Honestly, I have to wonder how much power would be needed to fire a particle accelerator versus the 50% lost in silicon.
I think an economist should do a CBA to see how viable it would be.
You would also have to analyze how it would affect the environment, considering you're putting in more energy to create more energy.
That essentially is the data you need, because this is focusing on production costs.
As for the actual energy production these photon-separated silicon wafers produce, that can also be measured if they were in the market.

[andik]

Wait. Is this Video demonatized? Why are there ads then?

[stephenrowley]

I've got no issue with Minute with paid adds at the end of the day they need funding to make more videos but this video crossed the line a fair bit. I not on the Hate Bill Nye train but again he crossed the line with this promotion. They both should have done more research before doing these adverts, its shame but even smart people get suckered in now and again.

[ws_stelzi]

If something needs very good marketing to sell, you get very good marketing for something!

[scottmuck]

Smart response. I was taken aback when the video pointed viewers towards investing in the company... Got to be careful with that, especially if you are not a registered investment adviser

[jessstuart]

I wonder if the extra processing, time and equipment to do the ion-implantation separation trick would even be worth the silicon savings.