Sunpartner, a French firm specializing in solar New Energy Technologies (NETs), has developed a new technology called What You See Is Photovoltaïc Surface (Wysips) that can that can transform any surface into an energy-producing medium using natural or artificial light without changing its look.
The technology finds the best application in mobile phone charging.
Wysips uses a combination of optical and photovoltaic properties. It produces an ultra-thin, transparent, photovoltaic component. The Wysips Crystal component, placed beneath the screen, supplies enough energy to guarantee your phone stays permanently charged. So you will never run out of battery.
The Wysips Crystal component is 90 percent transparent and is invisible to the naked eye. It has no impact on the phone’s intrinsic qualities: contrast, readability, angle of view or luminosity. Light energy is recovered and transformed into electric power that is directed back into the phone charging circuit, as if it were plugged into the grid or connected to a USB port.
The power generated by the component reaches 2.5 mW/ cm2 in the sunlight (1 sun), providing two to four extra minutes of communication time for 10 minutes of exposure on a 3G network.
By the end of 2014, Wysips aims to reduce the exposure time for 1 minute of communication by four (5Mw/cm2). And for products requiring only 60 percent-70 percent transparency, it can generate power of up to 10 mW/ cm2.
In august 2013, Sunpartner and TCL Communication, 7th largest manufacturer of smartphones, which designs and markets Alcatel One Touch phones, have announced the signing of a partnership to develop smartphone prototypes powered by solar and artificial light.
This project will enable TCL Communication to evaluate the technology in both technical and marketing terms. Sunpartner is now designing prototypes for three global leaders in mobile telephony.
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