Energy harvesting for a green internet of things
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Journal Article
Abstract
The ubiquitous nature of energy autonomous microsystems, which are easy to install and simple to
connect to a network, make them attractive in the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.
The growing energy consumption of the IoT infrastructure is becoming more and more visible. Energy
harvesting describes the conversion of ambient into electrical energy, enabling green power supplies
of IoT key components, such as autonomous sensor nodes.
Energy harvesting methods and devices have reached a credible state-of-art, but only a few devices are
commercially available and off-the-shelf harvester solutions often require extensive adaption to the
envisaged application. A synopsis of typical energy sources, state-of-the-art materials, and transducer
technologies for efficient energy conversion, as well as energy storage devices and power management
solutions, depicts a wide range of successful research results. Developing power supplies for actual
usage reveals their strong dependence on application-specific installation requirements, power
demands, and environmental conditions.
The industrial challenges for a massive spread of autonomous sensor systems are manifold and
diverse. Reliability issues, obsolescence management, and supply chains need to be analyzed for
commercial use in critical applications. The current gap between use-case scenarios and innovative
product development is analyzed from the perspective of the user. The white paper then identifies the
key advantages of energy autonomy in environmental, reliability, sustainability, and financial terms.
Energy harvesting could lead to a lower CO2 footprint of future IoT devices by adopting
environmentally friendly materials and reducing cabling and battery usage. Further research and
development are needed to achieve technology readiness levels acceptable for the industry. This white
paper derives a future research and innovation strategy for industry-ready green microscale IoT
devices, providing useful information to the stakeholders involved: scientists, engineers, innovators,
the general public, and decision makers in industry as well as in public and venture-funding bodies.
This inclusive strategy could bridge the energy harvesting technology frontier and the IoT node power
demands to create value.
connect to a network, make them attractive in the rapidly growing Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.
The growing energy consumption of the IoT infrastructure is becoming more and more visible. Energy
harvesting describes the conversion of ambient into electrical energy, enabling green power supplies
of IoT key components, such as autonomous sensor nodes.
Energy harvesting methods and devices have reached a credible state-of-art, but only a few devices are
commercially available and off-the-shelf harvester solutions often require extensive adaption to the
envisaged application. A synopsis of typical energy sources, state-of-the-art materials, and transducer
technologies for efficient energy conversion, as well as energy storage devices and power management
solutions, depicts a wide range of successful research results. Developing power supplies for actual
usage reveals their strong dependence on application-specific installation requirements, power
demands, and environmental conditions.
The industrial challenges for a massive spread of autonomous sensor systems are manifold and
diverse. Reliability issues, obsolescence management, and supply chains need to be analyzed for
commercial use in critical applications. The current gap between use-case scenarios and innovative
product development is analyzed from the perspective of the user. The white paper then identifies the
key advantages of energy autonomy in environmental, reliability, sustainability, and financial terms.
Energy harvesting could lead to a lower CO2 footprint of future IoT devices by adopting
environmentally friendly materials and reducing cabling and battery usage. Further research and
development are needed to achieve technology readiness levels acceptable for the industry. This white
paper derives a future research and innovation strategy for industry-ready green microscale IoT
devices, providing useful information to the stakeholders involved: scientists, engineers, innovators,
the general public, and decision makers in industry as well as in public and venture-funding bodies.
This inclusive strategy could bridge the energy harvesting technology frontier and the IoT node power
demands to create value.
Date Acceptance
2021-09-30
Citation
PSMA
Journal / Book Title
PSMA
Copyright Statement
© 2021 PSMA. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Identifier
https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/retrieve/551212/WhitePaper_EnergyHarvesting_GreenIoT_20211001.pdf
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-09-30