In last decade, the field of energy harvesting (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging) has increasingly become important evident from the rising number of publications and product prototiypes. Energy harvesting technologies have come on leaps and bounds, paving the way for sustainable future. Starting as early as the invention of windmills and waterwheels, we are now at a point where many electronic devices can use alternative energy that doesn’t ‘cost the earth’.
Energy harvesters provide a very small amount of power for low-energy electronics. While the input fuel to some large-scale generation costs money (oil, coal, etc.), the energy source for energy harvesters is present as ambient background and is free.
Power harvesting is the process of taking energy from external sources such as solar power, thermal or wind energy and storing for small wireless independent devices. They then provide a small amount of power for low-energy electronics. Solar, Radio Frequency, Thermoelectric and Piezoelectric are all types of energy scavenging and the technology is constantly developing to think of new ways to harvest and use the power captured. Energy harvesting is a massive growing industry that the annual growth rate is over 73% and will exceed $4 billion by 2020. These figures haven’t gone unnoticed and energy harvesting technology is now being taken seriously, especially by the current market leaders; Europe, North America, Japan and China.
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