A ReviewofCommercial EnergyHarvesters forAutonomous Sensors

Current commercial autonomous sensors aremainly powered byprimary batteries. Batteries needtobereplaced and hence canbecome thelargest andmostexpensive partofthesystem. Ontheother hand, ourenvironment isfull ofwasteandunused energy suchasthat coming fromthesunormechanical vibrations. As a result, commercial energyharvesters areincreasingly available topowerautonomous sensors. Thisworkpresents and analyses commercial energy harvesters currently available. First, environmental energy sources areclassified anddescribed. Then, energy harvesting principles aredescribed andsomeguidelines are given tocalculate themaximum powerconsumption allowed andthe energy storage capacity required fortheautonomous sensor. Finally, commercial energy harvesters areevaluated todetermine their capability topoweracommercial autonomous sensor insome given circumstances.