An increasing number of consumer and industrial products that are untethered from the electrical outlet will be powered by some form of energy harvesting technology in the near future, says Pike Research. This technology converts ambient energy into useable electrical energy. The energy sources available for ambient charging include electromagnetic radiation, thermal energy, and mechanical energy.

“Devices in settings with thousands of sensors that are diligently working to bring us information about temperature, humidity, security, machine health, structural health, and many other forms of data are becoming increasingly pervasive,” said vice president Bob Gohn. “In many of these applications, maintaining batteries is a major logistical and cost issue. Viable energy harvesting technology exists today and developers are fast becoming familiar with how to implement it into ever more-innovative devices.”

At the moment, the energy harvesting industry is going through a galvanization period, in which vendors, systems integrators, and end users all recognize that a joint approach in terms of standardization and initial market push will lead to an aggressive market acceptance curve, says Pike Research. Industrial applications will represent the majority of the energy harvesting market, the firm states, with a compound annual growth rate in excess of 100 percent for the sector as a whole.

Publication date: 05/14/2012