As pressure mounts on the electronics industry to address the environmental and safety risks of batteries, e-peas is positioning itself at the centre of a shift towards energy harvesting and more sustainable power solutions.
Founded to develop ultra-low-power semiconductor solutions, e-peas focuses on chips that harvest ambient energy — from light, vibration, or radio frequencies — allowing devices to operate with minimal or no batteries.
“Our role is to make devices autonomous,” says Geoffroy Gosset, the company’s Co-founder and Chief Executive, speaking at embedded world 2026. “If you can remove the battery, or at least dramatically reduce its use, you also remove a big part of the problem.”
At the show, e-peas demonstrated the practical impact of its technology. A series of devices powered entirely without conventional batteries were on display, including TV remote controls, keyboards, headphones, and smart locks. “It’s one thing to talk about energy harvesting in theory, but showing it in real devices really demonstrates what’s possible,” Gosset says.
Central to the company’s strategy is the AEM15820 power management IC (PMIC), which made its public debut at CES 2026. Launched in December, the chip is the first single-chip PMIC capable of managing the full dynamic range of hybrid indoor-outdoor photovoltaic (PV) cells.
“These hybrid PV cells have a huge range — from microwatts under indoor lighting to several watts in direct sunlight,” Gosset says. “Previously, managing this required multiple PMICs, which added cost and complexity. Our solution does it all in one chip.”
Optimised for both batteries and lithium-ion capacitors, the AEM15820 features an ultra-low-power cold start of just 5 µW at 275 mV. This allows devices to operate under very low-light conditions while still taking full advantage of bright sunlight. Gosset also highlights that the latest indoor PV cells are particularly suited to CCTV cameras, which can be in shade for large portions of the day.
Applications span both consumer and industrial markets. Current implementations include sports and hiking computers and self-charging headphones, while future possibilities extend to PV-charged earbud cases, e-readers, remote security cameras, smart glasses, power banks, and smart-backpack power modules.
And, with regulators increasingly looking to tighten oversight on battery use, recycling, and disposal, the company says interest is growing.
“Do you see momentum in regulation? Yes — absolutely,” Gosset says. “The responsibility of the OEM is now very clearly on the table. It’s not just about producing the battery anymore — it’s about what happens afterwards: transportation, disposal, and safety.”
In 2023, the EU implemented the EU Batteries Regulation (2023/1542) requiring battery manufacturers to manage the full lifecycle of their products, from collection to recycling and disposal. India is in the process of implementing a similar scheme, and the Chinese government has also announced plans to introduce lifetime tracking of EV batteries.
“It’s not just one region — it’s global,” Gosset says. “In China, they are extremely concerned about all this mess — fires, batteries, security aspects, and disposal problems. “People are searching for solutions — and importantly, they are finding them.”
Despite the promise, challenges remain, particularly scaling the technology for more power-hungry applications. Still, Gosset expresses confidence that regulatory pressure and technological innovation will continue to drive adoption.
“There is a realisation that you cannot ignore this anymore,” he says. “If you don’t address it, it will come back — whether through regulation, through incidents, or through public pressure. The momentum is clearly there,” Gosset concludes. “Regulation is coming, awareness is rising, and the industry is moving. The only question now is how fast.”
There’s plenty of other editorial on our sister site, Electronic Specifier! Or you can always join in the conversation by commenting below or visiting our LinkedIn page.
