WWF Project To Use Solar Cell Powered Animal Trackers

• Saule Technologies to develop perovskite solar cell powered tracking system for European Bison
• It will come with a rechargeable battery and will have a life of over 10 years that puts it in a good stead as compared to existing commercially available solutions
• The WWF initiative financed by the UNDP and Polish Challenge Fund will be using these devices to track and study the movement of European bison to help improve its population in Ukraine

In what goes on to prove the versatility of solar PV technology deployment across spectrums and surfaces, Saule Technologies of Poland will be using flexible perovskite solar cells to develop an animal tracking system that will run for over 10 years. Coupled with a rechargeable battery, it will provide real time data on the location of the animal and other environmental parameters.

This, Saule claims, will be one of the first perovskite-powered internet of things (IoT) solutions. This asset tracking IoT device will be used by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to save the European bison found across mainland Europe from Spain to Poland. It will help the agency to track, study the movement of the species and understand their behavior in natural environment to help improve its population in Ukraine.

WWF Poland and WWF Ukraine are reallocating a fragment of the European Bison population from Bialowieza National Park in Poland to various regions in Ukraine. "Existing commercially available solutions have many drawbacks related to their lifetime and durability," believes WWF.

"Perovskite solar cells will be a gamechanger in powering the animal-tracking devices," said Project Leader in Saule Technologies, Vivek Babu. "Our lightweight solar modules are printed on flexible substrates which in turn are sealed to prevent mechanical damage and allows for easy attachment to the tracking collar."

The project is financed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Polish Challenge Fund. In phase I, it will test the device on a small group of bison. Over the course of 10 years, it aims to support introducing over 4,000 bison in various areas of Ukraine.

Saule Technologies is part of the European Perovskite Initiative launched in May 2019 to support next generation PV industrial initiatives for perovskite (see European Perovskite Initiative Launched).