Ambient Photonics co-founder and CEO Bates Marshall thinks so and says the new technology, which happens to be backed by Amazon, can remove “hundreds of millions” of batteries from many small devices from TV remote controls to wireless computer keyboards by swapping them for solar energy.
Previously the technology has only been adequate for powering calculators and other small devices, but now after 40 years since the tech was discovered, Ambient claims it has advanced the small indoor solar panels to be three times stronger allowing the panels to power larger devices found in homes and workplaces.
After Samsung revealed ambient solar-powered remotes at CES three years ago, Marshall said interest soared in the technology.
However, because the Samsung solar panel was located at the rear of the remote, users would have to turn it over to charge it.
“The Samsung remote is an amorphous silicon, that’s the old tech. It’s a big cell and that’s why it’s on the back of the remote,” Marshall said.
“Our breakthrough is high power density – about three-and-a-half times the power of amorphous silicon. Why does it matter? It matters because most of these IoT (internet of things) devices are physically quite small, so space is at a premium. Therefore, if you can pack more power into a small space you can lead the market.”
New to the market will be the Hisense ambient solar TV controls, which are on the front of the remote.
Marshall said he welcomed the competition but he stands behind the power his product can generate and sees lots of growth potential apparent with the amount of calls he said the company has received from manufacturers, which include regulators working to make products more sustainable.
“We’ve been deliberate about which markets we’ve been approaching. We started in remotes, mainly because of the Samsung effect. We have great, great success there,” he said.
One of the key benefits of the Ambient solar panels that differentiate the product from the competition is that they are built to remain hidden, Marshall said.
“We’re not interested in pitching our customers solar products. We want the solar cell to be just part of the way it works,” he said.
Marshall acknowledged that corporates and big tech know they must make their products’ carbon neutral to fulfil environmental, social and governance obligations but they are struggling.
“If you really want to have a carbon neutral solution, the best way to do that, certainly the cheapest way to do that – and the most honest way to do that – is to get rid of the carbon itself and get rid of the battery.”
“The manufacturers themselves have this big imperative to get rid of the battery. And our energy source, the ambient solar cell, has about 90 % less carbon per unit energy than a comparable battery. So that’s one of the corporate incentives to adopt this kind of technology.”
In Australia alone, roughly 97% of batteries Aussies use each year (about 8000 tonnes) do reach landfills, says environmentally-focused Cleanaway.
Because batteries have toxic substances found within them (cadmium, mercury, lead) they are flammable as well as a health hazard.
But with the new solar panels, if even a portion of the roughly 800 million remote controls used and sold annually around the globe start swapping out batteries for solar panels, Marshall said “hundreds of millions” of batteries could be removed from landfills in the next five years.
