Energy Harvesting Design Model and Implementation

The Tyndall National Institute (TNI) is Ireland's largest research institute with over 350 personnel. It was created in 2004 to bring together complementary activities in photonics, electronics and networking research at the National Microelectronics Research Centre (NMRC), several UCC (University College Cork) academic departments and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) creating a focal point of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) research in Ireland.

Within the MAI group over 25 researchers are working in the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) space focusing on Building Energy management (BEM), wearable/healthcare and environmental monitoring applications.

The WSN team has developed a WSN platform ('the Tyndall mote') that has been successfully deployed in over 40 technology applications. The adoption of a wireless and self-powered solution using energy harvesting is a key ingredient for BEM projects as it enables the technology to be retrofitted easily into existing buildings. These motes are then incorporated into smart systems that intelligently monitor and control energy usage in buildings resulting in potential savings of 15-25%.