Potential Ambient Energy-Harvesting Sources and Techniques

Ambient energy harvesting is also known as energy scavenging or power harvesting, and it is the process where energy is obtained from the environment. A variety of techniques are available for energy scavenging, including solar and wind powers, ocean waves, piezoelectricity, thermoelectricity, and physical motions. For example, some systems convert random motions, including ocean waves, into useful electrical energy that can be used by oceanographic monitoring wireless sensor nodes for autonomous surveillance. Ambient energy sources are classified as energy reservoirs, power distribution methods, or power-scavenging methods, which may enable portable or wireless systems to be completely battery independent and self sustaining. The students from different disciplines, such as industrial technology, construction, design and development and electronics, investigated the effectiveness of ambient energy as a source of power. After an extensive literature review, students summarized each potential ambient energy source and explained future energy-harvesting systems to generate or produce electrical energy as a support to conventional energy storage devices. This article investigates recent studies about potential ambient energy-harvesting sources and systems.