Vibration Based Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting - A Review

Abstract

In this digital race, electronic equipment has been integrated into human beings as a part of their body. Some electronic equipment is connected by wires, while some are self-powered by batteries. Today the ultra-low-power smart electronic gadgets and smart wireless sensor devices need an unlimited battery for enhancing the performance. In a remote area such as forests and hill areas, conventional charging methods of batteries by wire is not possible. Supplying power through wires is difficult. To overcome this, a sustainable solution is energy harvesting. The renewable sources for energy harvesting are light, heat, wind, tidal, motion, and vibration. Researchers have more interest in harvesting energy through mechanical vibration due to its abundant availability. This paper reviews the work about piezoelectric crystals and their role in energy harvesting, simulation software used, energy harvesting circuits and storage devices.

Efficiency of Emerging Photovoltaic Devices under Indoor Conditions

“…As most of these systems will be operated predominantly indoors, there is a limited number of energy harvesting technologies available to provide power remotely. Heat (thermoelectricity), [3][4][5] mechanical vibration/movement (piezo-and tribo-electricity), [6,7] harvesting energy from radio frequencies available in the environment, [8] and ambient light (photovoltaics [PVs]) [9] have been considered in detail. Under typical indoor conditions, all of them provide only moderate/low power density, and converting ambient light into electricity appears to be the most promising power source.…”