Remote Solution Chooses Nowi as Partner to Develop Solar-powered Remote Controls

AMSTERDAM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Remote Solution is partnering with Nowi to develop eco-friendly, solar-powered TV remote controls.

The objective of this collaboration is to bring sustainable solutions to market, using Remote Solution’s expertise in designing and manufacturing world-class remote controls and incorporating Nowi’s cost-effective and efficient energy harvesting Power Management IC (PMIC).

Worldwide, about 15 billion batteries are tossed into landfills each year - only about 2% are recycled. Solar-power eliminates battery changes and allows the remote control to be perpetually self-powered. By removing disposable batteries, Remote Solution alleviates the concerns of environmentally conscientious consumers.

Solar-powered remote controls also provide improved user experience. Televisions, media adapters and set-top boxes are virtually unusable without the remote. When the battery dies, consumers are forced to either look for suitable cells at home, purchase additional ones or contact customer support to understand the reasons behind their TV malfunction. Self-powered remote controls eliminate the added hassle and effort of swapping batteries for both customers and providers’ customer service departments.

Sustainability at the heart of Remote Solution’s development strategy

Remote Solution is renowned for enhancing user comfort by providing world-class remote-control solutions. With sustainability as its big focus in the recent years, it has been searching for technologies that would allow to develop eco-friendly products. Remote Solution now embraces cutting-edge energy harvesting technology, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility strategy, as a way to develop new sustainable products. By doing away with battery changes, Remote Solution’s energy harvesting remote controls would contribute positively to the environment.

Remote Solution believes that adopting these environmentally-friendly, hassle-free ‘Energy Autonomous’ TV remote controls would contribute to ensuring a more sustainable future of consumer electronics by dispensing with disposable batteries in remote controls.

“Remote Solution designs and engineers connected products and solutions for Remote Control, IoT and Wireless Communication Modules industries. Nowi’s energy harvesting solutions fit perfectly our strategy to launch eco-friendly products.” comments Yoon Choi, General Manager at Remote Solution.

World’s smallest assembly footprint and lowest BOM cost energy harvesting PMIC

Nowi’s NH2 PMIC is designed to efficiently extract power from ambient energy sources, such as light and vibration, to charge a wide variety of energy storage elements. The NH2 PMIC is a revolutionary power management product as it has combined top energy harvesting performance -through its optimized Maximum Power Point Tracking feature- with a 98% reduction of the PMIC assembly bill-of-material (BOM) size and cost, enabling great efficiency in TV remote control applications.

Additionally, new developments in energy harvesting technology have significantly lowered the cost of implementation, making this innovative solution economically feasible in remote controls.

Simon van der Jagt, Nowi B.V. CEO, adds: “Nowi is excited to see the adoption of our energy harvesting technology in TV remote controls. The NH2 PMIC’s uniquely low-cost, small and simple implementation is a strong fit in TV remotes. As such, we believe our partnership with Remote Solution will be a further catalyst in the adoption of green technology by TV vendors and set top box providers.”

About Remote Solution

Remote Solution Co. Ltd., a privately held company established in 1994, is a global manufacturing leader of remote control devices and IoT solutions. The company develops and supports products for some of the world's foremost brands within the consumer electronics, service providers, and home control industries. For more information, visit www.remotesolution.com

About Nowi

Nowi is a private semiconductor firm founded in 2015, based in Delft, the Netherlands, with regional offices in the US and in Hong-Kong.

Nowi has developed a novel energy harvesting power management IC that combines top harvesting performance with the world’s smallest assembly footprint and lowest BOM cost. Thereby it simplifies the design process and lowers the threshold for any company to develop ‘Plug & Forget’ products.

For more information, visit www.nowi-energy.com

LinkedIn: /company/nowi | Twitter: @nowi_energy