21 October 2015

A UK company has launched what’s claimed to be revolutionary new technology that turns RF waves into usable electricity to charge low power devices.

‘Freevolt’ was developed by an international team from Drayson Technologies and Imperial College, London. It harnesses the unused wireless energy generated by transmission signals on mobile, Wi-Fi and broadcast networks. 

Drayson Technologies was setup by Paul Drayson who is perhaps better known as Lord Drayson who previously served as Minister of Science until May 2010.

He says Freevolt solves the problem of harvesting usable energy from a small RF signal. “Companies have been researching how to harvest energy from Wi-Fi, cellular and broadcast networks for many years. But it is difficult, because there is only a small amount of energy to harvest and achieving the right level of rectifying efficiency has been the issue – until now.”

The Freevolt harvester comprises a multi-band antenna and rectifier, which is said to be capable of absorbing energy from multiple RF bands at almost any orientation. 

It’s claimed the small, lightweight design is scalable and suitable for a range of uses, such as low-energy devices in the Internet of Things which can be perpetually powered.

Drayson will be the first company to market the patent-pending technology which is now commercially available for license to the international developer and business communities.

The CleanSpace Tag air pollution sensor is the first product to be powered by Freevolt.

The first commercial application of Freevolt is the CleanSpace Tag, a totally portable personal air pollution sensor that was co-developed with the PA Consulting Group.

The idea behind CleanSpace is to create a crowd-sourced network of personal air sensors, initially across the UK before expanding to major cities across the world. The aim is to start a social movement where people are connected and motivated to work together to reduce air pollution.