Micro energy harvesting will become mainstream technology in 2012, writes John Corbett, sales director UK for EnOcean
Energy harvesting wireless sensor technology, which uses minute quantities of ambient solar, thermal or kinetic energy to drive self-powered radio modules, is already proven but has made significant progress during 2011 as more and more independent innovators are integrating energy harvesting modules and IP into their own products.
The German government’s DyCoNet (dynamic container network) project has been another important milestone this year, bringing together influential players such as Innotec Data, Jettainer, Lufthansa, PalNet and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow & Logistics specifically to develop an energy-autonomous, intelligent network for air freight containers.
The potential for energy harvesting wireless sensors in freight monitoring and supply chain management is enormous, taking advantage of the complete freedom from power supplies and wires to achieve true anywhere, anytime operation; particularly when mobile or when located in hostile or inaccessible areas.
So the last 12 months have seen energy harvesting take decisive steps towards becoming the ubiquitous technology that forecasters have predicted for some considerable time.
Another sure sign of market readiness is the arrival of enablement solutions including plug-and-play modules with pre-loaded applications and sensor development kits such as our USB stick that enables users to build a TCP/IP gateway for PC or Linux systems
Moving through 2012 and beyond, we expect energy harvesting technology to become more clearly targeted towards vertical markets such as building automation, industrial networking, logistics and agriculture, as the technology continues to mature rapidly.