This morning the ZigBee Alliance have announced GreenPower, a new optional feature of the ZigBee PRO standard. The new technology will allow wireless products, including switches and dimmers, to now be powered by energy harvesting devices rather than use traditional battery or mains power.
Green Power is an optional feature for the ZigBee PRO feature set that is part of the enhanced ZigBee 2012 specification recently ratified and released to Alliance members. It significantly expands the capabilities of ZigBee PRO, further strengthening its leadership position as the global standard for wireless sensor and control networks and the Internet of Things. With ZigBee PRO Green Power products, consumers and businesses can add ZigBee devices to many more areas including locations where power is unavailable, not allowed for safety reasons or for historical preservation purposes. Product manufacturers can implement ZigBee into more products with confidence, knowing ZigBee is backed by a thriving, innovative and competitive ecosystem.
“The use of energy harvesting in commercial building automation, for example, can reduce operating costs while helping organizations to demonstrate ‘green’ credentials”, said Lisa Arrowsmith, manager of connectivity research for IHS. “Additionally, with over 35 million ZigBee-enabled ‘smart home’ and home automation devices that are not line-powered projected to be shipped by 2017, the ZigBee PRO Green Power feature also presents a compelling option in the residential space.”
As a part of the extensive Alliance test and certification plan development process, it selected golden unit development kits from GreenPeak Technologies, Philips, Schneider Electric and Texas Instruments. These implementations will serve as golden units against which future ZigBee Certified products using the ZigBee 2012 specification will be tested. This testing process ensures compliance with the standard so that manufacturers can be assured of consistent communications. Testing services were provided by NTS, TRaC and TÜV Rheinland.
“The Green Power feature for ZigBee PRO will allow development of the most eco-friendly products possible,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “This smart new feature continues ZigBee leadership in low power networking by enabling no maintenance power source alternatives to be easily used in ZigBee Building Automation products”
Products using Green Power will be eligible to wear the ZigBee CertifiedTM product logo.
ZigBee uses self-organizing and self-healing mesh networking to enable robust communications over the globally available 2.4 GHz frequency and over 868/915 MHz technology in select countries. Only ZigBee offers superb interference immunity and the ability to host thousands of devices on a single network. As a green technology with ultra-low power requirements, ZigBee gives devices the ability to be installed almost anywhere, eliminating maintenance concerns and maximizing installation flexibility, characteristics making it ideal for M2M and IoT applications. More information and a complete list of ZigBee 2012 specification features and benefits are available at:
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