Abstract
Energy harvesting is otherwise known as power harvesting or energy scavenging.
It is the use of ambient energy to power small electronic or electrical
devices. That means solar cells on satellites, heat powered sensors buried in
engines, vibration harvesting for helicopter electronics and the wind- up
radio or lantern. However, there are also several more esoteric options.
Energy harvesting has reached a tipping point. This is because the necessary
lower power electronics and more efficient energy gathering and storage are
now sufficiently affordable, reliable and longer lived for a huge number of
applications to be practicable. From wind-up laptops for Africa to the
wireless light switch working from the power of your finger, these things are
either available or imminently available. And photovoltaics, long used in
aerospace, has come down-market, even to road furniture but it has much
further to go even to disposable solar film and even solar paint. The first
solar powered watches and phones have appeared. Some new photovoltaic
technologies are printed reel to reel at low cost, the resulting film working
off heat as well as light. For example, Sony is commercialising flexible solar
cells for indoor use.
However, there are further mountains to climb from self powered wireless
sensors monitoring forest fires, pollution spillages and even inside the human
body and in the concrete of buildings. These applications will become
commonplace one day. Even devices with maintenance-free life of hundreds of
years can now be envisaged. Meanwhile, bionic man containing maintenance free,
self-powered devices for his lifetime is an objective for the next few years.
For the first time, this unique report looks at the global situation. It
particularly focuses on 200 organisations in 22 countries.
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