DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Energy Harvesting and Storage for Electronic Devices 2009-2019" report to their offering.
Energy harvesting is otherwise known as power harvesting or energy scavenging. It is the use of ambient energy to power small electronic or electrical devices. That means solar cells on satellites, heat powered sensors buried in engines, vibration harvesting for helicopter electronics and the wind- up radio or lantern. However, there are also several more esoteric options.
Energy harvesting has reached a tipping point. This is because the necessary lower power electronics and more efficient energy gathering and storage are now sufficiently affordable, reliable and longer lived for a huge number of applications to be practicable. From wind-up laptops for Africa to the wireless light switch working from the power of your finger, these things are either available or imminently available. And photovoltaics long used in aerospace has come down-market, even to road furniture but it has much further to go even to disposable solar film and even solar paint. The first solar powered watches and phones have appeared. Some new photovoltaic technologies are printed reel to reel at low cost, the resulting film working off heat as well as light. For example, Sony is commercializing flexible solar cells for indoor use.
However, there are further mountains to climb from self powered wireless sensors monitoring forest fires, pollution spillages and even inside the human body and in the concrete of buildings. These applications will become commonplace one day. Even devices with maintenance-free life of hundreds of years can now be envisaged. Meanwhile, bionic man containing maintenance free, self-powered devices for his lifetime is an objective for the next few years.
For the first time, this unique report looks at the global situation. It particularly focuses on 200 organizations in 22 countries, the distribution being as shown below.
How do these things work? Which technologies have the most potential now and in the future? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Which countries have the most active programs and why? What are the leading universities, developers, manufacturers and other players up to? What alliances exist? What are the timelines for success? All these questions and more are answered in this report.
First prepared in late 2008/ early 2009, is the fruit of global visits, literature searches and interviews by our technically qualified staff. We stage the largest conferences in three continents on Printed Electronics and the only major conferences on Real Time Locating Systems/Wireless Sensor Networks and Photovoltaics beyond Conventional Silicon, plus a major RFID conference. These and our widespread technical and marketing consultancy business provides unique insight into what is happening and about to happen.
Some of the Companies mentioned:
- Active Business Company GmbH
- AdaptivEnergy
- BAE Systems
- Fast Trak Ltd
- Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen
- Idaho National Laboratory
- IntAct
- Intel
- Kanazawa University
- KCF Technologies Inc
- Leviton
- LonMark International
- Mitsubishi Corporation
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- PEHA
- Regulvar
- Satellite Services Ltd
- Simon Fraser University
- Sony
- Vicos
- Virginia Tech
- Yonsei University,
- ZMD AG
For more information visit www.researchandmarkets.com/research/d93516/energy_harvesting.