Halocell and Photovoltaics

Photovoltaics is quite a mouthful. But you already know them as Solar Panels and Solar Cells. But I deliberately went away from using those terms because of what it immediately conjures to mind. In practice, Photovoltaic = anything that takes Light (photons) and turns that into a Voltage.

I was very pleased to meet up with Halocell Energy at the recent Electronex 2025 electronics trade show in Melbourne. I’ll put some more details about the technology below but lets cut to the chase. Here we have a winning combination of features from my perspective:

• Made in Australia
• Better resource utilisation and recyclable
• Light weight, flexible modules can be applied to any surface
• Solves the biggest problem in solar powered systems

The last point is that most solar cells, on a cloud free day in full sunlight, can generate a fair amount of power. But dull days and indoor operation they have a highly reduced output. Halocell Photovoltaics match conventional solar cells in full sunlight but are 30% to 50% better in outdoor low-light conditions; on cloudy/rainy days and for indoor applications, not to mention they will also work under artificial light (halogen, fluoro and LED).

That significantly better indoor low-light performance is why Halocell is currently focussing on indoor applications and the cells you can buy from their website are targeting those applications. Up until now indoor energy harvesting has either needed super low power devices like Zigbee light switches and you might remember the old solar powered calculators. These work because the actual energy requirements are tiny. With Halocell this can expand to many aspects of smart homes and indoor IoT devices allowing improved flexibility in sensor location and portability. Examples are air-conditioning temperature sensors, light switches, remote controls, window coverings controls and in commercial applications electronic shelf price labels. In practice, many products that run from button cells could be powered by Halocell .

The indoor light powered remote control below is not a product we worked on but is a good example of how this technology can replace conventional batteries with all the materials and waste savings that come from this.

solar powered remote control

And here is a look at a Halocell module.

Halocell ambient light solar cell

IoT and Power Budgets

We have been doing IoT since 1998; before the term was made public by IBM.  So we know first-hand how challenging it is to reduce power consumption to match your power source, usually by reducing how many readings you take or how often and when you upload them.

An outdoor example we developed: the arcHUB smart cities sensor is a solar powered device that takes air quality readings and pushes them to the cloud. To make sure we had enough power from the solar cells, we set ourselves the challenging of operating in the middle of winter, in Hobart, mounted on the wrong side of a power pole. ie. not much sunlight to work with. This is necessary because running power to a location is very expensive and there are many use cases where you don’t want wires or an electrician to have to provide power. The same advantage applies indoors. With Halocell this would have been a lot easier. Pity they weren’t around at the time but I am glad they are here now.

arcHUB trial at Fitzroy Gardens

And now for an explanation from Halocell .

Powering IoT Devices with Perovskite Photovoltaics – The Halocell Energy Advantage

The Internet of Things, or IoT, continues its rapid expansion, with 18.8 billion devices projected to have been connected by the end of 2024, according to IoT Analytics’ State of IoT Summer 2024 report. And of course more are connected every day. While significant efforts have been made in designing ultra-low-power devices, one major challenge remains: how to power these devices reliably and sustainably over time. Batteries, the traditional power solution, come with limitations as they degrade quickly, need replacing, and add to environmental waste and maintenance costs. That’s why energy harvesting technologies, like Halocell Energy’s ambient Perovskite Photovoltaics (PV’s), offer such a compelling path for long-term IoT deployment.

What are Perovskite Photovoltaics?

Perovskite Photovoltaics represent a new generation of solar technology, built on a class of materials with an ABX3 crystal structure, typically CaTiO3. Unlike market dominant crystalline/polycrystalline silicon PV’s, Perovskite Photovoltaics offer several advantages:

• Outstanding performance across a wide range light conditions from UV to IR, rainy days and indoors,
• Lightweight, flexible PVs that can be integrated on a wide range of surfaces,
• Lower material and energy requirements during manufacture, and very rapid energy payback (2 months vs 2 years),
• Recyclable (already listed in more detail below),
• A more stable voltage output over a wide range of light conditions.

In indoor or low-light environments, Perovskite Photovoltaics are 3-5 times more efficient than commercially available indoor Photovoltaics such as Trony’s amorphous silicon Photovoltaics. This makes them a transformative solution for powering IoT devices reliably, sustainably, and without the dependence on batteries.

Why Halocell Energy?

Halocell is developing and manufacturing Perovskite Photovoltaics for a wide range of applications. Founded with the mission to continue delivering power, when conventional photovoltaics fall short, through cutting-edge material engineering and advanced roll-to-roll manufacturing, Halocell delivers innovative, high-performance Photovoltaics, empowering customers with sustainable, scalable and efficient energy harvesting solutions. Halocell‘s initial products are tailored for indoor and ambient lighting conditions. Their flexible, foil-like, modules are ideal for embedding into small electronics and energy harvesting IoT devices.

Halocell flexible photovoltaics

Some standout features of Halocell’s ambient solutions:

• Optimised for low-light, ideal for homes, offices, and industrial settings (500 lux and below).
• Thin-film, light weight, flexible format perfect for sensors, tracking devices and a wide range of other low power IoT devices.
• Fully Recyclable – can safely reclaim and reuse 98% of the functional materials and recycle the substrate.
• Australian innovation with global reach.

Halocell Perovskite Photovoltaic modules are already powering logistics trackers, environmental monitors, smart building sensors, and even smart labels – all without the need of direct sunlight.

Halocell’s second and third module releases are designed for full sun applications to power satellites and drones, and later releases will target large format light weight applications for warehouse roof installation.

Halocell Energy

Where to from here?

Halocell flexible Photovoltaics have a lot of use cases where they excel, including low light, seasonal light variation (including cloudy and rainy weather) and indoor applications. Coupled with an appropriate rechargeable battery and charging circuit this opens up a new range of stand alone and self powered IoT applications. Some might even be able to use a super capacitor instead of the battery which adds further to the life of the product due to the higher reliability of super capacitors.

So if you have an application for a low light, smaller form factor or flexible mounting Photovoltaic, then Halocell could be the answer. If you want a solution that is Made in Australia, they are the only answer. And if you need electronics design around that then we can assist with that part.

Successful Endeavours specialise in Electronics Design, Embedded Software Development and Electronics Manufacturing, focusing on products that are intended to be profitably Made In Australia. Ray Keefe has developed market leading electronics products in Australia for more than 40 years.

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