The European Commission warns that by 2025, 78 million batteries could be discarded daily due to the short lifespan of IoT device power solutions. While most IoT devices have a lifespan exceeding 10 years, their batteries often last just two years or less, leading to frequent replacements. This not only generates significant environmental waste but also increases maintenance costs and downtime.

FLEXWAVE recognizes this challenge and highlights how high-efficiency energy harvesting could be the key to addressing it. To demonstrate the potential of this technology, FLEXWAVE conducted an extreme test on Solar-Navi, the world’s smallest solar GPS tracker.

On Nov. 21, FLEXWAVE deliberately drained Solar-Navi’s battery to 3.0V, disabling GPS functionality and reducing the device to energy harvesting mode. The tracker was placed on the rooftop of FLEXWAVE’s headquarters, exposed solely to natural sunlight. By the next afternoon, Nov. 22, the battery voltage reached 3.6V, enabling GPS functionality to resume.

For the next 20 days, Solar-Navi sustained operations entirely on sunlight, continuously tracking and recharging its 1800mAh battery. By December 11, the battery reached 100% capacity, generating 1,949 uninterrupted GPS location records during this period. This real-world test validated the efficiency and reliability of FLEXWAVE’s energy harvester.

Bridging Sustainability, Net-Zero Technology, and Smart Cities

FLEXWAVE’s test demonstrates the potential of energy harvesting to drive the integration of environmental sustainability, net-zero technology, and smart city development:

1. Reducing Battery Waste: High-efficiency energy harvesting extends device lifespans, drastically reducing the environmental burden of battery manufacturing and disposal. This aligns with global sustainability goals by curbing the alarming levels of battery waste.
2. Minimizing Maintenance Costs: Autonomous power solutions eliminate the need for frequent battery replacements, significantly cutting maintenance costs and ensuring seamless operations in remote IoT deployments.
3. Ensuring Operational Resilience: Continuous, self-sustaining power enables uninterrupted functionality for critical IoT applications, unlocking transformative potential in areas such as healthcare and environmental monitoring.

Conclusion

The Solar-Navi’s success demonstrates the transformative potential of FLEXWAVE’s high-efficiency energy harvesting solutions.

By addressing global concerns such as battery waste, operational costs, and power reliability, FLEXWAVE is paving the way for sustainable, autonomous smart devices. These innovations not only align with environmental and technological goals but also contribute to building smarter, greener cities for a sustainable future.

Here Comes the New Efficiency Record of indoor mono-Si PV – 23.97%

Overcoming the challenge of weak and indoor lighting has long been a significant hurdle for crystalline Si PVs due to mismatched energy bandgap and the low power density of artificial lamps. For instance, a 1000 lux T5 lamp has an energy density of just 0.19 mW/cm², about 2/1000 that of sunlight (1 Sun = 100 mW/cm²). Under such conditions, conventional crystalline Si typically achieves around 10-12% efficiency.

In 2023, FLEXWAVE’s waveguide PV technology revolutionized the field by pushing the power conversion efficiency of mono-Si based PV modules beyond 20% under fluorescent light for the first time (employed 22% PERC). This milestone was showcased at EUPVSEC; menawhile, the waveguide encapsulation enables to capture photons from an incident angle of 176 degrees, as demonstrated through the masking experiments.

This year, we’ve broken our own record by pairing this technology with the latest 24.6% TOPCon solar cells, achieving an unprecedented 23.97% for mono-Si based PVs under indoor lighting conditions certified by the Photovoltaics Calibration Labotary of ITRI. This remarkable performance enhancement proves that the micro-concentration benefits of waveguide can effectively address the bandgap mismatch, enabling high-efficiency monocrystalline silicon cells to maintain substantial power output even in low-light environments.

This mass-produced module not only puts mono-Si at the forefront of the low-light energy harvesting market but also declares a competitive efficiency compare to the commercialized thin-film PVs. Additionally, silicon materials boast a proven track record of over 40 years of durability in outdoor applications, which ensuring extremely reliable performance both indoors and out.

Join us in celebrating this groundbreaking achievement as we continue to lead the way in energy harvesting innovation and deliver the best performance for the Smart and Net Zero future!

The leading photovoltaic trade magazine & and website launched in the summer of 2008. With independent, technology-focused reporting, pv magazine focuses on the latest solar news, as well as technological trends and worldwide market developments.

Flexwave provides high efficient PV energy harvesting solution to support the wireless endnodes in both indoor and outdoor, and it’s honor to be reported by PV Magazine.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/10/11/taiwanese-startup-launches-pv-system-for-remote-sensors-tracking-systems/

Asia’s largest tech and startup media platform, has announced the launch of Echelon Asia Summit 2023. Organised at Singapore EXPO on 14-15 June 2023, the two-day event will feature 5,000 attendees from all over Asia, representing 200+ companies and having over 100+ international world class speakers. Echelon is a technology event helping startups forge new business connections, unravel new business opportunities, and create a deal flow of new investments across Southeast Asia’s tech ecosystem.

FLEXWAVE is honor to be selected as TOP100 team to join this grand event!

Today, we are glad to announce that FLEXWAVE CO., LTD. has been labeled as 1 of 1,000 efficient solutions by Solar Impulse Foundation. This label approve that Flexwave have well-developed on Renewable Energy and Eco-friendly concepts. Also we help our clients fulfill various innovations.

Solar Impulse foundation is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland. The “1000solutions” program was launched by Bertrand Piccard to promote innovations that help protecting our environment in a profitable way. Currently more than 900 of these solutions are listed in the five categories:

• Affordable and Clean Energy: Arc solar box
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Sustainable Cities and Communities
• Responsible Consumption and Production

Flexwave brings out the “Device-Integrated PV” concept and helps our customers to design self-generated green power into their products, which make the goods more efficient and eco-friendlier. We can change the game from micro to mega, and these integrated powers will be a revolution for further green future. 

For more information, please refer to solarimpulse.