WePower and Southco Unveil Battery-Free Smart Lock Concept that Eliminates Maintenance and Wiring Costs at CES 2026

Joint demo showcases Gemns energy harvesting technology powering a wireless, battery-free smart lock

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CES® 2026, North Hall Booth #8425 WePower Technologies and Southco today announced a battery–free, wireless smart lock concept that delivers secure electronic access without batteries or wired power, slashing maintenance and installation complexity for OEMs and facility operators. The solution, debuting in a live demonstration at CES, uses kinetic energy harvesting to power both locking and wireless communication, enabling truly maintenance–free access control.

The demonstration at the company's booth (#8425, North Hall) features a lock that integrates WePower's Gemns™ G200 energy harvester, high–efficiency electronics to power Southco's locking actuator and a BLE radio without a battery, which means OEMs can deploy connected locks without adding power wiring or battery service visits. The smart locking solution makes it practical to retrofit secure, connected access on remote enclosures, data center cabinets, and industrial equipment where running power cables or scheduling battery replacement is expensive or impractical. By removing batteries and wiring, customers can reduce service truck rolls, avoid downtime, and scale electronic access to thousands of points that were previously uneconomical to connect.

The lock pairs with and communicates wirelessly to a smartphone app, allowing users to securely control the lock state remotely. Designed for scalability, the Gemns platform enables custom solutions tailored to specific customer and application requirements, supporting use cases across industrial equipment, enclosures, and enterprise access points.

Southco's connected access hardware complements the Gemns energy harvesting system by enabling ultra-low-power actuation and simplified installation, demonstrating how next-generation access solutions can be deployed with minimal infrastructure and maintenance.

"We have simplified traditional wired access systems down to a single plug-and-play touchpoint," said Steve Spatig, General Manager, Electronic Access Solutions at Southco. "Simply swap out your mechanical lock with a connected smart lock and connect wirelessly via your smartphone or wireless gateway. And now with energy harvesting technology like the WePower kinetic energy generator, we can offer a battery-free solution as well."

"Battery replacement and wiring have long been the biggest barriers to scaling connected access," said Larry Richenstein, CEO and Founder of WePower Technologies. "Those barriers drive up maintenance costs and slow deployment. This collaboration with Southco delivers a truly maintenance–free wireless lock, allowing customers to scale electronic access wherever they need it."

The joint CES demonstration underscores how energy harvesting can remove long-standing barriers to smart access adoption, such as battery replacement, wiring complexity, and maintenance costs, while enabling secure, connected, and sustainable access control solutions.

About WePower Technologies (Gemns)

WePower Technologies is an innovator in energy-harvesting IoT solutions, pioneering battery-free devices that deliver reliable performance for smart home, industrial, and enterprise applications. The company's patented Gemns™ Energy Harvesting Generator (EHG) technology uses electromagnetic induction with permanent magnets and custom circuitry to capture kinetic energy—such as button presses, motion, or environmental triggers—and convert it into usable power. By outputting energy in the millijoule range, up to 40× more power than previous kinetic harvesters, Gemns-enabled devices can support long-range wireless transmissions, advanced sensors, and edge computation without batteries.

Founded in 2019 by Larry Richenstein, WePower is on a mission to eliminate disposable batteries in the Internet of Things, reducing maintenance costs and electronic waste for a more sustainable future. For more information, visit www.gemns.com.

About Southco

Southco has been the leader in engineered access solutions for over 75 years. Southco's Connected Access solutions extend the benefits of IoT connectivity to physical access points, overcoming the challenges of traditional access hardware with minimal cost and complexity. With miniature, low-power mechatronics, Southco Connected Access is changing the game in equipment access control and monitoring. Southco's latest actuators take low-power operation to a new level, enabling access point connectivity with extremely low energy requirements and supporting innovative battery-free energy harvesting technologies such as the WePower Gemns™ platform.
For more information, visit www.southco.com.

Media Contacts:

For WePower Technologies (Gemns):
- Erin Vadala, President, Warner Communications – [email protected]; 617-669-1560
- Danielle Hicks, VP of Marketing – [email protected]

SOURCE WePower Technologies