Savi Technology Taps Solar Energy toPower RFID-Based Asset Tracking Systems

Logistics Insight Asia - Technology & Market Trends, 16/1/2008

Defense and commercial customers gain energy benefits from Savi’s use of solar-powered radio frequency identification hardware.

Savi Technology, a Lockheed Martin company, has begun deploying solar-powered Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers and signposts, enabling customers in the defense and commercial sectors to conserve energy and reduce costs while tracking supplies in real-time. Solar energy provides an energy efficient and environmentally friendly power source for users’ RFID hardware, and also eliminates the need to install electrical infrastructure in remote areas where there is no fixed reader infrastructure.

Savi engineers mounted solar panels and RFID signposts on poles located at a major U.S. Army supply facility in Kuwait. The solar-powered signposts activate RFID tags attached to vehicles or pieces of equipment. The tags then report the assets’ positions to nearby RFID readers, which relay the information to Savi Site Manager software that automatically updates the assets’ latest location. These tools enable the facility to track more than 25,000 tags per day.

Plans are underway with the U.S. Department of Defense to expand the use of solar-powered applications to other areas in the Middle East and beyond.

On the commercial side, Savi Networks operates an RFID-based network in Colombia that also leverages solar energy to power Savi RFID signposts and readers that track the status and security of containerized cargo shipments managed by Emprevi Ltda., a Colombia-based provider of logistics and security services for major importers and exporters. Savi Networks, a joint venture in which Savi Technology holds a majority interest, installed solar-powered panels at strategic supply chain checkpoints, including source factories and port facilities, to monitor in-transit goods manufactured in and exported from Colombia.

Savi Technology, www.savi.com.