Shortly, there will be a massive expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). Millions of products used in smart greenhouses, public spaces, and homes will be brought online. These items are low-energy consuming devices. There will be so many that having to replace all their batteries constantly would be absurd and extremely inconvenient. For this reason, all over the world, researchers are busy finding ways to harness the energy from elements around us – primarily artificial light. Their work has brought us flexible power generators for indoor settings.
Last year a team of Swedish and Chinese scientists reported the development of organic indoor solar cells. Since then, there have been further developments of photovoltaics that can harness indoor lighting. Recently, an international team created perovskite photovoltaics on roll-to-roll coated ultra-thin glass. The technology is autonomous, small, convenient, economical, and can provide seamless integration of sensors into ambient environments. Read more…