In the Product Design & Development Brainstorm we talk with industry leaders to get their perspective on issues critical to the design engineering marketplace. In this issue, we ask:
What is the future of energy harvesting? What markets will energy harvesting have the greatest impact upon?
Dr. Rahul Razdan PhD, CEO, WiPower
Over the last 30 years, mobile devices have revolutionized communication by employing a tiered communication structure which provides various product alternatives for data communication. Similarly, energy harvesting is one item in a set of key technologies which offer product alternatives for power delivery in an overall power architecture.
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In this power architecture, a range of wireless power technologies such as microwaves, resonant inductive power transfer or energy harvesting can enable end applications. Microwaves can offer the transfer of large amounts of power in a utility setting. Resonant inductive power systems (especially generation three and beyond) can transfer moderate amounts of power which raise the mobility of nearly all consumer devices. Finally, energy harvesting can enable a new class of sensor technologies which require minimal power and guarantees of service, but are widely distributed.
For energy harvesting, there is limited use in applications such as consumer devices, however the sweet spot is in enabling a new class of smart physical infrastructure. In this world, smart inventory can communicate with the warehouse in a real-time basis, or a smart road/bridge can communicate its condition to a passing car. The limiting factors for growth are the rate of infrastructure renewal, and the creation of accompanying processes which manage this new smart infrastructure. However, the economic value of these applications can be enormous.
Harry Ostaffe, Director, Marketing & Business Development, Powercast
Energy harvesting for micro-power devices is available from sources such as vibration, thermal, solar, kinetic and RF.
Harvesting small amounts of power from these sources can extend the battery-life of existing devices, and is enabling new battery-free devices that can be powered perpetually and deployed with little or no subsequent maintenance.
Eliminating maintenance issues such as battery replacement is critical for autonomous wireless sensor networks to scale to thousands of nodes. Energy harvesting efficiencies are continually improving, and the component manufacturers of devices such as microcontrollers are designing for lower power consumption and lower operating voltages.
Ambient energy harvesting requires an available, but potentially unreliable source of power. RF energy harvesting can also be coupled with a dedicated radio transmitter to provide remote power that is controllable through continuous, scheduled or on-demand power transmissions.
Several markets offer great potential for energy harvesting, including building automation and energy management, industrial automation, agriculture and defense. Building automation and energy management applications are benefiting today from indoor solar and kinetic energy harvesting, with RF energy harvesting (i.e. wireless power) adding the ability to provide power even in low-light conditions.
Industrial automation applications can benefit from all forms of energy harvesting and there is on-going activity sponsored by the ISA to define standard interfaces between energy harvesting devices and industrial controls. Solar is an attractive solution for agricultural sensors used to monitor soil conditions. Defense applications are quite numerous and will include all forms of energy harvesting.
Jonathan C. Smith, Senior Industrial Designer, IDSA
Energy harvesting? Let’s begin by establishing a definition for the phrase. Energy harvesting as defined on Wikipedia as the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy), that is captured, and stored.
If we look around us, we notice how much energy each of us consumes and how much energy we expend in order to live life in the fashion in which we are accustomed, which is different for everyone. Energy harvesting is only limited by our ability to give pause and identify the ways in which we may be able to successfully extract and, very importantly, store the kinetic energy all around us.
I use the term kinetic energy because from my perspective I see a variety of sources that are ripe for the taking. But our ability to store that unused portion of energy for later use, transference, or passive consumption is very important, one which has been the focus of millions of R&D dollars and where I see the future of energy harvesting having the greatest impact.
I see the future of energy harvesting being one where the engineers, designers, researchers, manufacturers and all other associated professions play an integral role. We have to eliminate the focus on dollars and instead set our sights on solutions for the betterment and longevity of humanity.
I am not leading to a doomsday scenario in any way. I am saying that we all need to listen to our inner voice and do what is best for humanity. Our resources are finite and if we can manage to go to the “optometrist of humanity” to have our vision checked. We will be able to see where and what we should be doing to ensure our resources is used to the best of their ability.
We are seeing how many nations are standing on the rest of the world’s shoulders as it relates to telecommunication. i.e.: rural China. These same nations and those still in development will use what we have developed in order to improve their quality of life, and the best available option is what will be utilized.
I see street lights that have their own combination of solar cells (paint) and wind harvesting capabilities and the light emitted from these structures are based on some low consumption high output method, such as LEDs or OLEDs.
I see cars that drive on high traffic highways and through city streets that are covered in a piezoelectric system that harvests that energy. I see the cars having mechanisms that can capture the wind as they are being driven in order to recharge the batteries used to power them. Both of these systems need to store the energy we harvest in a well considered fashion. Too much energy is lost as we move it from one place to another.
But I only see things from my perspective. And I know that I am but one voice that can ask, “What would you do?” or “How else can we do it?” I leave the rest up to you, those who are in the industries that can most directly affect the choices we have when it comes to consumption. The power of suggestion is incredible. I press you to get the conversation going and see where it takes the organization you work for. Your decision to begin the dialogue can make the difference.
Kevin Marzano, Director of Business Development - North America, Perpetuum
I think that energy harvesting (EH) powered solutions across a broad range of applications and markets are at the beginning of the adoption curve. The development of low power microprocessors, such as the TI MSP 430 and roll out of standards for communication protocols, like ISA100 and WirelessHART, have allowed for the development of hardware that can be powered by EH solutions.
Plus the standards provide end users assurance that implementation of hardware in today’s factory can be upgraded and increased as wireless condition monitoring and equipment health management becomes fully integrated into the end users operations.
As partnerships develop between EH technology providers, sensor companies, energy storage device companies, low power radio providers and integrators, the ability to deliver multiple solutions and cost effective solutions, end users will now have the ability to choose the best solution for their operational objectives.
There are so many opportunities for EH solutions that span across many markets and applications. Condition monitoring and equipment health offer a large opportunity for EH solutions but asset tracking, location and security may be the next largest opportunity. The global economy necessitates the need for knowing where your assets are and whether they are secure. There is typically no power source on trucks, rail cars, freighters and intermodal containers thus a great opportunity for EH solutions, like vibration or solar, to power asset tracking devices.
Thomas Blum, Business Development Manager, Power, Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik
Energy harvesting will create a revolution in terms of market players, employed technologies and system complexities. The energy market today works with a brute force approach, meaning centralized power plants produce at least equal or more energy than the sum of the actual consumption, plus all losses in the distribution process. It is mainly a one way distribution process, similar to how information distribution worked some decades ago with broadcasting stations and printed press.
The future energy harvesting technologies allow producing energy in smaller, decentralized stations distributed over the power grid. A node in the power grid can be a consumer during a certain period of time and a producer during other times. This is an interactive process similar to information generation and distribution in the Internet.
In a similar way the Internet revolution changed the marketplace for information distribution. The energy marketplace will be changed dramatically as well. New players with new solutions will emerge, new technologies will be developed; new billing systems will replace old methods and some of the old players may potentially disappear if they do not adapt fast enough.
The consequences are more complex for highly dynamic systems which can no longer be controlled from a central location. In addition, intelligent solutions for different technical, commercial and political questions need to be found. This leaves a lot of room for new ideas and solutions and an ending to the “we have always done it like this” mentality.
Dennis Fox, Electrical Engineer, Haumiller Engineering
There are different scales and purposes for energy harvesting.
Nanowatt applications might derive power from vibrations to operate super small circuitry. I expect this to be useful only for niche products.
Concerning power infrastructure, I read an editorial response recently that indicated that the total combined available power of all American wind sources would only meet ten percent of our current usage. If true, this is a bit discouraging in that we use so much power and that this kind of energy harvesting appears weak in comparison with potential population increases.
In my fairly uninformed opinion, the convergence of reductions of individual and industrial energy usage with improved efficiencies and harvesting technologies will probably be a necessity. Therefore the markets affected will be those that show the greatest potential for energy reduction. There is money to be made in infrastructure also, but that still seems so elusive. Who can make power the cheapest? Still coal, I suppose.