Multi-Source Energy Harvesting and Storage for Floating Wireless Sensor Network Nodes With Long Range Communication Capability

Wireless sensor networks are widely used for environmental monitoring in remote areas. They are mainly composed of wireless sensor nodes, usually powered by batteries with limited capacity, but are expected to communicate in long range and operate for extended time periods. To overcome these limitations, many energy harvesting techniques are proposed to power wireless nodes for prolonged operation, whereas multihop techniques are utilized to extend the communication range. In this paper, a novel floating device with multisource energy harvesting technology that can be used as a wireless sensor node is proposed. The long range communication between wireless sensor nodes and a gateway is established through LoRa technology. In addition to conventional solar panels, an energy harvesting technique based on thermoelectric generators exploiting thermal differences created between water surface and materials exposed to sunlight is proposed. Energy generated from photovoltaic and thermoelectric generators is combined to power the wireless sensor node. This floating device consumes 6.6216 Wh per day when used as a wireless sensor node for the collection and transmission of environmental data. The sensor node can operate on a water surface for at least 9.6 days when it is not exposed to sunlight. During a sunny day, the floating device can harvest 8.375 Wh from solar panels and 0.425 Wh from thermoelectric generation. In other words, the floating device harvests sufficient energy to be self-sustaining during sunny days.