Industry Needs Analysis Potential Opportunities for Energy Harvesting

Industry Needs Analysis

Potential opportunities for energy harvesting

Special Interest Group

Energy Harvesting

May 2013

The Energy Harvesting

Special Interest Group

The Technology Strategy Board has launched its Emerging Technologies and Industries programme and is working with partners to build a UK programme in Energy Harvesting. The programme is intended to accelerate the development and commercial use of products, processes and services based on energy harvesting technology. The Energy Harvesting Special Interest Group (SIG) brings together the community along the value chain – from academia, materials technologies, devices, systems integration and through to the user communities helping build a vibrant and productive Energy Harvesting community in the UK. The information in this report will be used by the SIG to widen the debate about where energy harvesting may have a role to play. It will also provide input to briefings for funding agencies on challenge areas to be supported.

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The Energy Harvesting Special Interest Group

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Health & Medical

Introduction

Industrial process contribution and monitoring

Scope of the study

Infrastructure and syructural monitoring

Approach

Oil and Gas

Aerospace

Rail

Agriculture

General Conclusions

Automotive

About us

Building Automation

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Introduction

Energy harvesting is a means of powering wireless electronic devices by scavenging many low grade ambient energy sources such as environmental vibrations, human power, thermal and solar and their conversion into useable electrical energy. Energy harvesting devices are therefore potentially attractive as replacements for primary batteries in low power wireless sensor nodes or to extend battery life by feeding rechargeable batteries. It is currently recognised that the roll out of more widespread and larger scale wireless sensor networks has been...