Real-time tracking of assets has enabled both supply chain digitalization and operational efficiency leaps. These benefits, driven by IoT advances, have proved transformational. As a result, the market for asset-tracking systems for transportation and logistics firms is set to triple, reaching USD 22.5 billion by 2034¹. And, if we look across all sectors, the asset tracking market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of 15%, reaching USD 51.2 billion by 2030².

However, the ability for firms to maximize the benefits of asset tracking is being constrained by the finite power limitations of a single component, the battery. Reliance on batteries has a number of disadvantages. In addition to the battery cost, battery replacement across multiple locations increases operational costs and demands considerable time and effort.

At the same time, batteries can cause system-wide vulnerabilities. When a tag’s battery unexpectedly fails, for example, a tracked item can effectively disappear from the network and the corresponding data is no longer collected. This, in turn, leads to supply chain disruptions and bottlenecks, sometimes even production line downtime, and reduces the very efficiencies the IoT-based system was designed to deliver (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Real-time tracking of assets is transforming logistics operations, enabling supply chain digitalization and unlocking major efficiency gains.

Battery maintenance

A “typical” asset tracking tag will implement two core functions: location and communications. For long-distance shipping, GPS will primarily be used as the location identifier. In a logistics warehouse, GPS coverage can be poor, but Wi-Fi scanning remains an option. Other efficient systems include FSK or BLE beacons, Wirepas mesh, or Quuppa’s angle of arrival (AoA).

For data communication, several protocols are possible,

• BLE if the assets remain indoors
• LTE-M if global coverage is a key requirement, and the assets are outdoors
• LoRaWAN if seamless indoor and outdoor coverage is needed, as this can use private, public, community, and satellite networks, with some of them offering native multi-country coverage.

Sensors can also improve functionality and efficiency. For example, an accelerometer can be added to identify when a tag moves and then initiate a wake-up. Other sensors can determine a package’s status and condition. In the case of energy harvesting, the power management chip can indicate the amount of energy that is available. Therefore, the behavior of the device can also be adapted to this information. The final important component on the board of an asset tracker will be an energy-efficient MCU.

The stated battery life of a 15-dollar tag will often be overestimated. This will mainly be due to the radio protocol behaviors. But even if the battery cost itself is limited, the replacement cost can be estimated at around 50 dollars once man-hours are factored into this.  

An alternative tag based on the latest energy harvesting technology might have an initial cost of around 25 dollars, but with no batteries to replace, its total cost over a decade remains essentially the same, whereas even a single battery replacement already pushes a 15-dollar tag above that level.

For example, in the automotive industry, manufacturers transport parts using large reusable metal racks. Each manufacturer will use tens of thousands of these, each valued at around 500 dollars. We have been told that, because of scanning errors and mismanagement, up to 10 percent go missing each year.

By equipping racks with tags powered from harvested energy, companies can create an automated inventory system. This results in annual OPEX savings that can be in the order of millions of dollars, a return on investment within months, and lower CAPEX since fewer racks are required for the same production volume.

Self-powered tracking

Unlike battery-powered asset trackers, Ambient IoT tags use three core blocks to supply energy to the system: the harvester, an energy storage element, and a power management IC. Together, these enable energy to be harvested as efficiently as possible.

Energy sources can range from RF through thermoelectric to vibration, but for many logistics and transport applications, the most readily available and most commonly used source is light. And this will be natural (solar) or ambient, depending on whether the asset being tracked spends most of its life outdoors (e.g., a container) or indoors (e.g., a warehouse environment).

For outdoor asset trackers on containers or vehicles, significant energy can be harvested from direct sunlight using traditional photovoltaic (PV) amorphous silicon panels. When space is limited, monocrystalline silicon technology provides a higher power density and still works well indoors. For indoor light levels, in addition to the traditional amorphous silicon, there are three additional technologies that become available and cost-effective for these use cases.

• Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells can provide up to twice the power density of amorphous silicon. Furthermore, the flexibility of these PV cells allows for easy mechanical implementation on the end device.
• Dye-sensitized solar cells bring even higher power densities and exhibit low degradation levels over time, but they are sometimes limited by the requirement for a glass substrate, which prevents flexibility.
• Perovskite PV cells also reach similar power densities as dye-sensitized solar cells, with the possibility of a flexible substrate. However, these have challenges related to lead content and aging.

Before selecting a harvester, an evaluation of the PV cell should be undertaken. This should combine both laboratory measurements and real-world performance tests, along with an assessment of aging characteristics (to ensure that the lifetime of the PV cell exceeds the expected end-of-life of the tracker) and mechanical integration into the casing. The manufacturer chosen to supply the technology should also be able to support large-scale deployments.

When it comes to energy storage, such a system may require either a small, rechargeable chemical-based battery or a supercapacitor. Alternatively, there is the lithium capacitor (a hybrid of the two). Each has distinct characteristics regarding energy density and self-discharge. The right choice will depend on a number of factors, including the application’s required operating temperature and longevity.

Finally, a power management IC (PMIC) must be chosen. This provides the interface between the PV cell and the storage element, and manages the energy flow between the two, something that needs to be done with minimal losses. The PMIC should be optimized to maximize the lifespan of the energy storage element, protecting it from overcharging and overdischarging, while delivering a stable, regulated power output to the tag’s application electronics (Figure 2).

For an indoor industrial environment, where ambient light levels can be low, there is the risk of the storage element becoming fully depleted. It is therefore crucial that the PMIC can perform a cold start in these conditions, when only a small amount of energy is available.

In developing the most appropriate system for a given asset tracking application, it will be important to undertake a power budget analysis. This will consider both the energy consumed by the application and the energy available for harvesting. With the size of the device and its power consumption, it is relatively straightforward to determine the number of hours per day and the luminosity (lux level) for any given PV cell technology to make the device capable of autonomously running by harvesting more energy over a 24-hour period than it consumes.

The storage element size is also critical as it determines how long the device can operate without any power at the source. And even if power consumption is too high to make it fully autonomous, the application of energy harvesting can be used to significantly extend battery life.

Figure 2 e-peas has worked with several leading tracking system developers, including MOKO SMART (top), Minew (left), and inVirtus (center), Jeng IoT (right) to implement energy harvesting in asset trackers. Source: e-peas

Examples of energy-harvested tracking systems

Companies such as inVirtus, Jeng IoT, Minew, and MOKO SMART, all leaders in developing logistics and transportation tracking systems, have already started transitioning to energy-harvesting-powered asset trackers. And notably, these devices are delivering significant returns in complex logistical environments.

Minew’s device, for example, implements Epishine’s ultra-thin solar cells to create a credit card-sized asset tracker. MOKO SMART’s L01A-EH is a BLE-based tracker with a three-axis accelerometer and temperature and humidity sensors. These tags, which can be placed on crates to track their journey through a production process, give precise data on lead times and dwell times at each station. This allows monitoring of efficiency and the highlighting of bottlenecks in the system.

A good example of such benefits can be found at Thales, where the InVirtus EOSFlex Beacon battery-free tag is being used. The company has cited a saving of 30 minutes on tracking during part movements when monitoring work orders after the company switched to a system where each work order was digitally linked to a tagged box. Because each area of the factory corresponds to a specific task, the tag’s indoor location provides accurate manufacturing process monitoring.

Additionally, the system saves time by selecting the highest priority task and activating a blinking LED on the corresponding box. It also improves both lead time prediction accuracy and scheduling adherence—the alignment between the planned schedule and actual work progress.

The tags have also been used to locate measurement equipment shared by multiple divisions, and Thales has reported savings of up to two hours when locating these pieces of equipment. This is a critical difference as each instance of downtime represents a major cost, and without this tracking, the company would incur significant maintenance delays that could stop the production line.

Additionally, one aviation manufacturer that is also using this approach to track the work orders has improved scheduling adherence from 30% up to 90%.

Ultimately, energy harvesting in logistics is not simply about eliminating batteries, but about building more resilient, predictable, and cost-effective supply chains. Perpetually powered tracking systems provide constant and reliable visibility, allow for more accurate lead-time predictions, better resource planning, and a significant reduction in the operational friction caused by lost or untraceable assets.

Pierre Gelpi graduated from École Polytechnique in Paris and obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Montreal in Canada. He has 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. He began his career at Orange Labs, where he spent eight years working on radio technologies and international standardization. He then served for five years as Technical Director for large accounts at Orange Business Services. After Orange, he joined Siradel, where he led sales and customer operations for wireless network planning and smart city projects, notably in Chile. He subsequently co-founded the first SaaS-based radio planning tool dedicated to IoT.
In 2016, he joined Semtech, where he was responsible for LoRa business development in the EMEA region, driving demand creation to accelerate market growth, particularly in the track-and-trace segment. He joined e-peas in 2024 to lead Sales in EMEA and to promote the vision of unlimited battery life.
References:

1. Yahoo! (n.d.). Real Time Location Systems in transportation and Logistics Market Outlook Report 2025-2034 | AI, ML, and IOT, enhancing the capabilities of RTLS in real-time data collection and analysis. Yahoo! Finance. https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/real-time-location-systems-transportation-150900694.html?guccounter=2
2. Asset tracking market size & share: Industry report, 2030. Asset Tracking Market Size & Share | Industry Report, 2030. (n.d.). https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/asset-tracking-market-report#:~:text=Industry:%20Technology,reducing%20losses%20and%20optimizing%20logistics.

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