A Solar Battery That Doesn’t Need Sun

May 26, 2014

Using the sun’s strong energy as a power source is a great idea, and good for the environment. But solar batteries only work well in outdoor conditions when the sun is shining. That handicap will be overcome within a few months, thanks to a collaboration between two Israeli companies, Sol Chip and Tadiran Batteries.

Sol Chip CEO Shani Keysar tells ISRAEL21c that a former Tadiran executive saw a presentation on Sol Chip’s maintenance-free Everlasting Solar Battery at a conference, and immediately understood the potential for synergy between the two firms. Sol Chip’s energy harvesting approach is designed to enable autonomous operation of devices and systems powered by a “plug and play” solar energy source. The miniature chip eliminates the need for an expanded solar panel area and provides a perpetual power supply for disruptive technological applications, such as precision agriculture and the Internet of Things (IoT).

“Our product is a [small] battery that can transfer light to electric energy,” she explains. “Light is harvested from surrounding existing energy, captured and stored for small wireless autonomous devices. Our collaboration with Tadiran is to develop a 24-hour solar battery using our chip to provide a continuous supply of energy from the same source, even when there is no light available.”

From Tadiran’s perspective, putting Sol Chip’s Energy Harvester chip in its battery can potentially power the lifetime of wireless applications including AMR [Automatic Meter Reading] utility meters, GPS [Global Positioning System] emergency locators, animal tracking devices, GPS asset/container tracking, GPS vehicle tracking and environmental measurement and radio frequency identification (RFID) devices.

“This collaboration will provide the (Internet of Things) IoT market with an important step forward towards the autonomous clean operation of wireless sensors,” says Keysar. Based in Haifa, Sol Chip has dedicated a team to the joint project, and has outsourced some of the development work. Keysar says the company’s chips currently are made outside of Israel, but she hopes to move production to the domestic front. Tadiran’s products are made in Israel, and the new 24-hour solar battery could be ready for market by the summer of 2014.

Source: Excerpts of article by Abigail Klein Leichman reprinted with permission, ISRAEL21c,

Photo Credit: www.sol-chip.com