RS Unveils Partnership on Unique Energy Harvesting Device as Part of Earth Week

Summary

April 18, 2023 - RS Group plc, a global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions, has unveiled details of its close partnership with WITT Energy and the development of the highly innovative WITT device, as part of "Earth Week," leading up to "Earth Day" on Saturday, April 22, 2023.

WITT Energy is a start-up company that has developed an award-winning device that harvests otherwise untapped motion and turns it into usable power. The WITT device–which takes its name from "Whatever Input to Torsion Transfer"–essentially accesses the six degrees of motion and turns that energy into electrical power to charge batteries. The concept can be particularly useful in harsh marine environments, where the WITT device can harness power from current, wind and waves and provide persistent power for remote applications.

The partnership with RS is multi-layered and involves a blend of business support, product sourcing, community action and training. The project is being led by RS’ "Innovation team’"–in conjunction with RS’ DesignSpark team, which has been in contact with WITT over many years–to help realise the development of the product and supply components that enable the product to reach the market.

The innovative WITT device is still in its testing phase but has recently passed trials in open water and been confirmed as fit for purpose. The next step is to move it out of the prototype stage and toward many different applications around the globe. To this end, WITT is currently involved in discussions and testing with many governments and energy and water authorities across the world, as well as several multinational companies.

“We are very proud to reveal our cooperation with WITT Energy, and especially so during Earth Week, which should be a globally shared moment to recognise that we need to act to change our world and make a more sustainable future,” said Mike Bray, vice president of Innovation and DesignSpark at RS. “RS has many ongoing programmes to help achieve this change, and the highly innovative WITT product is just one example of our Activist Engineering programme, which is designed to help engineers develop sustainable solutions and bring them to market.”

“RS is a fantastic partner for the development of our product, in terms of component sourcing and its expertise and knowhow to help us bring our technology to market,” said Tim Williams, chief executive at WITT Energy. “Working with RS, our highly experienced engineering team is totally dedicated to getting the WITT unit deployed in many diverse marine energy-harvesting applications for the betterment of our environment.”

About RS Group

RS Group plc is a leading global omni-channel industrial product and service solutions provider to customers who are involved in designing, building and maintaining industrial equipment and operations, safely and sustainably. We stock more than 700,000 industrial and electronic products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provide a wide range of product and service solutions to over 1.2 million customers. With operations in 32 countries, we trade through multiple channels and ship over 60,000 parcels a day.

We support customers across the product life cycle, whether via innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing purchasing costs and optimising inventory in the maintenance phase. We offer our customers tailored product and service propositions that are essential for the successful operation of their businesses and help them save time and money.