Battery-Free, Carbon-Neutral Connectivity at MWC Barcelona 2026

FTH / CHEDDAR Stand 7B43, Hall 7, Fira Gran Via – 2–6 March 2026

Why Energy Harvesting Matters for 6G

As billions of sensors, wearables and connected devices become part of the future digital infrastructure, power consumption and battery waste are emerging as major environmental challenges.

Traditional IoT systems rely heavily on batteries, which require regular replacement and contribute to significant electronic waste and maintenance costs. Energy harvesting technologies offer a compelling alternative by enabling devices to capture small amounts of energy from their environment.

Sources of ambient energy include:

• Radio frequency (RF) signals from wireless networks
• Indoor lighting
• Background electromagnetic signals

By converting these sources into usable electrical power, devices can operate continuously and autonomously, supporting long-term deployments in healthcare, smart buildings, logistics and environmental monitoring.

This approach aligns closely with emerging 6G sustainability goals, where future networks must deliver higher performance while significantly reducing their environmental impact.

The Demonstration at MWC Barcelona

At MWC Barcelona 2026, visitors to the Federated Telecoms Hubs (FTH) / CHEDDAR Stand 7B43 (Hall 7) will experience a live demonstration showcasing how wireless systems can operate without batteries, powered instead by harvested ambient energy.

The demo illustrates how RF energy and indoor light can be converted into usable electrical power to support:

• Always-on wireless sensors
• Low-power connected devices
• Sustainable, maintenance-free IoT deployments

Rather than viewing interference and ambient signals as inefficiencies, the research reframes them as valuable energy resources, supporting the development of battery-free, carbon-neutral connectivity for 6G and beyond.

Research Foundations

The demonstration builds on recent research exploring how energy harvesting and wireless communication systems can work together to enable sustainable network architectures.

Research presented at the IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) investigates how interference signals within wireless networks can be repurposed as a source of energy, enabling devices to harvest power while simultaneously supporting distributed machine learning processes.

Tota Khel, A. M., Ikhlef, A., Ding, Z., & Sun, H.
Analog Over-the-Air Federated Learning with Interference-Based Energy Harvesting.
IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), 2025. https://cheddarhub.org/publications/

Further work demonstrates how Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) can support zero-energy communication architectures, enabling wireless devices to operate using harvested energy while maintaining reliable connectivity.

Tota Khel, M., Ikhlef, A., Ding, Z., & Sun, H. (2025)
Zero-Energy RIS-Assisted Communications With Noise Modulation and Interference-Based Energy Harvesting.
IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking.
https://cheddarhub.org/publications/

Additional research has explored how AI-driven optimisation techniques can reduce the carbon footprint of wireless and vehicular communication systems, helping networks dynamically manage energy consumption.

Tang, H., Liu, C., Liu, J., Sun, H., Jiao, P., & Wu, H. (2025)
DRL-based Carbon Emission Optimisation Method for the Vehicular Reverse Offloading System.
IEEE International Conference on Communications in China (ICCC).
https://cheddarhub.org/publications/

Together, these studies illustrate how energy-aware network design, intelligent communication architectures and ambient energy harvesting can combine to enable future battery-free wireless systems.

Toward Sustainable 6G Infrastructure

Battery-free connectivity could play an important role in addressing the sustainability challenges facing future wireless networks.

Potential applications include:

• Wearable health monitoring devices that operate continuously without charging
• Smart building sensors that run indefinitely using indoor light
• Large-scale IoT deployments that eliminate battery replacement costs
• Environmental monitoring networks in remote or hard-to-access locations

By reducing reliance on batteries, these technologies could significantly lower electronic waste, reduce maintenance requirements and enable more sustainable digital infrastructure.