| Project Detail |
The IoT revolution has created an explosion in affordable, networked devices, with some trillions of connected sensors anticipated by 2025. Cost-effectiveness is one of the main roadblocks limiting ubiquitous sensor deployment, particularly indoors; a roadblock that the IoT sensor industry has a strong need to remove. Indoor sensors need batteries, which must be replaced. Energy harvesting can extend battery lifetimes, but current energy harvesting solutions do not produce enough power: thermal/motion solutions are not applicable for most IoT sensors, and photovoltaics are inefficient at low light conditions.
Swedish green startup Epishine have produced the world’s first metal-free organic reel-to-reel printable PV module for indoor light energy harvesting in ultra-low illumination.
Our ultra-light, ultra-thin, flexible material has a wide range of applications. Its world-leading efficiency at low illumination levels verified by a third party as (>65% better than closest competition at 50 lux), and its low production costs, enable a best-in-class market entry price (€1 for a 20 cm2 module) and performance. This makes our Light Energy Harvesting (LEH) Modules uniquely suited for powering the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution. This fills a critical gap in the market, enabling a step-change in operating costs and deployment scales for IoT sensors.
We will power the indoor wireless revolution today, and revolutionise solar power tomorrow.
This project is the first step in an accelerated commercialisation process, to bring the Epishine Light Energy Harvesting (LEH) Module to a successful market entry with IoT sensor developers within 3 years. Our goal of 25M IoT Energy Harvesting modules/year by 2024 will create €100M revenue and 288 jobs for Epishine, and an additional 234 jobs in the production ecosystem. Installing this number of LEH modules will avoid over 614M battery replacements during sensor lifetimes, saving 494t of CO2-eq. |
