Introduction to Energy Harvesting

Energy Harvesting Demo

Imagine that you power your system without use of batteries or power cords.

This is possible today with the arrival of more efficient energy harvesters, which can recover waste energy and convert it into electricity in sufficient amounts for most applicaitons.

Applications

Applications include wireless sensor nodes used for structural health monitoring (such as bridges, engines, generators etc), recharging batteries but also household, industry and borderline security monitoring as well as embedded medical applications and monitoring of tire pressure. Wireless sensors and switches may also be used to control larger currents in buildings, thereby significantly reducing costs to climate control, lights, etc.

Competitive edge

It is only the imagination that sets the boundaries of how Energy Harvesting can give your business a competitive edge. To fully take advantage of having no wires and no need for replacing batteries requires a new way of thinking.

Ask your employees how these opportunities may give your company a competitive edge

 A green profile is appealing to the majority of companies. Harvesting energy from the ambient environment is clean energy in the same sense as a solar cell or a wind turbine is - it replaces the need for nonrenewable energy and/or batteries just typically in a smaller scale.

Technologies

Energy harvesting can generally be classified in to 4 categories.

1) Vibration and strain energy harvesting - using piezoelectric materials and electromagnetism to generate power

2) Solar power energy harvesting - converting rays of the sun into electricity

3) RF energy harvesting - using RF signals to generate power

4) Thermal energy harvesting - using temperature difference to generate power

Which one to choose depends on what your business needs and what is available in the environment. Each of the technologies including examples is available on this site - just follow the tabs.