New Report Predicts a Billion-Dollar Business for Zero Energy Devices by 2024
On Monday 4 March, 2024, a new commercially-oriented report titled “Zero Energy Devices ZED: Self-Powered and Backscatter-Powered Electronics and Electrics Markets, Technology 2024-2044” was released, detailing the potential for a billion-dollar business in creating ZED materials and devices.
The 408-page report addresses key questions such as how to create a successful ZED business, potential competitors and partners, market and technology roadmaps for 2024-2044, technology readiness and potential improvements, and market forecasts by technology and application.
The report also delves into the trend of “massless energy” and other structural electronics, battery-free and ultra-low power electronics, and emerging non-toxic and non-flammable options. It predicts dramatic advances in ZED technology, including the potential for devices that never need to be recharged and can last for decades without the need for batteries.
According to the report, ZED technology will play a crucial role in the development of the Internet of Things, making it more affordable, smaller, and lasting for decades without causing pollution. It also highlights the importance of ZED sensors, which are expected to be in high demand in the coming years.
The report’s primary author has a track record of creating successful high-tech businesses, lending credibility to its insights and warnings about potential dead ends and over-promising.
The Executive Summary and Conclusions of the report provide a comprehensive overview of the ZED market, with 26 pages of easily-understood infograms and roadmaps and 65 forecast lines for ZED and allied technologies and applications.
The report’s second chapter introduces definitions, context, and successes of ZED technology, addressing the increasing electricity consumption of electronics and the potential for ZED to eliminate power consumption and battery issues. It also explores the simplification of on-board energy harvesting and the potential for ZED to reduce weight, size, cost, and failure modes, as well as eliminate toxic materials. The report also examines whether ZED technology can halt the increasing demand for grid-based electricity and its potential role in the Internet of Things.
Chapter 3 dives into the role of ZED technology in 6G Communications, which is planned for 2030, with a radically improved form expected in 2035. It highlights the need for widespread ZED in the infrastructure for 6G to succeed and its potential to enable a vast number of edge computing ZED client devices.
The report’s fourth chapter explores the progress of ZED in wireless sensors, the Internet of Things, personal electronics, and other applications. It also delves into the potential for fit-and-forget battery-free sensors and ZED wearables, including metaverse interfacing, as well as its potential in automotive and medical industries.
The heart of the report consists of three chapters on addressing important sectors with ZED technology and seven chapters on the emerging technologies that will drive its success.
Chapter 5 focuses on strategies to achieve fit-and-forget battery-free ZED, addressing battery headwinds and the eight ZED enablers that can be combined to create successful ZED devices. It also explores self-healing materials, specification compromises with energy harvesting, and the quest for batteryless ZED in heterogeneous cellular networks.
Chapter 6 examines the contribution of ultra-low power electronics, sensors, and electrics to the success of ZED technology. It covers a broad scope but focuses on ultra-low power integrated circuits and metamaterials that require less electricity, allowing for more forms of device to operate using energy harvesting and backscatter power.
Chapter 7 delves into powering devices only when interrogated, also known as backscatter technology, and its potential for applications in EAS, RFID, IoT, 6G Communications, and other electronics. It also addresses new research in ambient backscatter communications and crowd-detectable ZED.
The report’s remaining chapters cover the various energy harvesting technologies evolving for ZED applications, including photovoltaics, RF harvesting, and mechanical harvesting using electrodynamics, piezoelectrics, and other methods. It also explores the potential for multi-mode energy harvesting and storage options that batteries cannot achieve.
The report’s conclusion highlights the potential for massless energy to transform ZED technology, with the development of structural supercapacitors that incur no increase in space or weight even when combined with a photovoltaic overlayer.
The report, “Zero Energy Devices ZED: Self-Powered and Backscatter-Powered Electronics and Electrics Markets, Technology 2024-2044” is a comprehensive guide to the opportunities and challenges in the rapidly evolving ZED market.
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.