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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Tryst Energy (Tryst Energy: Light Energy Harvesting for the IoT-industry)

Teaser

Summary

The IoT sector is emerging: the amount of internet connected devices in the industrial domain is expected to increase to 25 billion in Europe within a few years. The potential of ultralow power industrial IoT starts to disrupt the industry ranging from predictive maintenance on railways, container cargo tracking to smart city sensoring. The vast majority of these devices is equipped with a battery, which results in one of the main obstacles to make a success of the IoT-revolution. The costs of the battery and battery replacement every 3 to 5 years are disproportionate to the total cost of a low power IoT-device, and therefore a major bottleneck for industry companies to start implementing IoT-ecosystems. Furthermore the battery replacement of IoT-devices results in vast amounts of chemical waste and constitutes a complex logistical challenge since a typical low power IoT-ecosystem consists in general of thousands of devices at hard to reach places TWTG R&D B.V. has developed the Tryst module, a sustainable and cost-efficient alternative for batteries by means of light energy harvesting for IoT-devices. The Tryst module harvests enough energy to continuously supply an IoT-sensor in very low light conditions, since it requires only 200 lux light for 4 hours per day. Tryst is the ideal solution since it provides IoT-energy supply which is 13 times more cost-efficient than conventional batteries and dismisses complex battery replacement campaigns. In addition Tryst reduces the projected amounts of chemical waste caused by battery usage in IoT-ecosystems. Therefore the Tryst module is the breakthrough innovation, which will make vast and growing amounts of IoT-batteries dispensable and a necessary enabler to further accelerate the IoT-revolution. To convince the market of the added value of the Tryst module a demonstration project needs to be executed. In the Phase 1 SME instrument project the preparatory actions for this demonstration project are taken.

Work performed

This study consists of two parts. Technical Feasibility and commercial viability.

During the technical requirements session of the Tryst module for the three major market segments will be analysed and determined. In order to assess the technical feasibility of upgrading the technology from TRL7 to TRL9 TWTG will investigate which parts can be standardised into use-case adaptable components in order to reduce manufacturing time and cost to an acceptable level. This task results in a realistic prediction of the manufacturing costs of the Tryst technology, including a technology roadmap for getting there.

Determine commercial feasibility by validating the financial and environmental benefits for all stakeholders
Based on preliminary calculations, both the environmental and the financial benefits of Tryst compared to the conventional batteries are large. However, potential buyers have indicated that they need stronger proof in order to take the investment decision. Therefore engineers of TWTG will develop a mathematical model capable of giving a realistic prediction of reduction in operational and investments costs and environmental impact for using Tryst. The outcome in terms of return on investment will be discussed with the existing potential buyers, resulting in a realistic prediction of sales in the next five years. The economic feasibility depends on the outcomes of this task.

The result of the technical study was that the expected lifetime guarantee would have to be adjusted to 15 years vs 60 years we previously calculated and validated. This due to less performing solar technology (still very early stage) heavenly impacting the life expectancy.
These technical changes impacted the commercial feasibility study and the case study versus battery powered sensors resulted in a negative outcome for the tryst module.

The conclusions we drafted after carrying out these studies are:

-The technology stands and performs to be a viable energy source for low power devices.
-The benefits over a regular battery solution are not commercial viable (in contradiction of the assumptions before carrying out these studies).
-The environmental impact of an energy harvesting solution is less than that of a battery, but more than anticipated before carrying out these studies.

Final results

The conclusions let TWTG believe a review of the businesscase is necessary. The technology worked as expected, a lifetime of 60years turned out to be unlikely with the current state of technology.