This report has been updated. Click here to view latest edition.

If you have previously purchased the archived report below then please use the download links on the right to download the files.

Energy Harvesting: Off Grid Microwatt to Megawatt 2017-2027

Applications, technologies, forecasts including regeneration

Show All Description Contents, Table & Figures List FAQs Pricing Related Content
This unique report of detailed analysis is easily grasped because many new infographics and forecasts are presented. No other analysis looks at the complete picture from microwatts for autonomous sensors to megawatts off grid for community power. The executive summary and conclusions appraises the results of the intense global travel schedule of the PhD level analyst team researching the subject in 2016 with ongoing updates. Extensive interviews were carried out in various languages plus global conference attendance and assessment of privileged information from the IDTechEx events on the subject. IDTechEx analysts have studied energy harvesting for 15 years and have seen the trends.
 
The report has an introduction looking critically at the successes and failures, the overall situation and the companies and universities involved. An extensive chapter on applications reveals how an aircraft or a house for example, has need of energy harvesting producing a whisper of electricity for small electronic devices such as MEMS up to large power levels for moving, cooking, heating etc. The commonality is revealed by the technologies and companies involved. We consider the four leading technologies - electrodynamics, photovoltaics, piezoelectrics and thermoelectrics - forecasting them by numbers and market value to 2027. The report explains how curiosities such as electret, capacitive, triboelectric and magnetostriction forms of EH now looks good in trials for many uses.
 
"Energy Harvesting: Off-grid Microwatt to Megawatt 2017-2027" predicts winners and losers in applications and technologies for EH and lists many companies involved with critical assessment of where the billion dollar business will emerge and what are the dead ends. What EH will be adopted in for wearable technology? Why are the Internet of Things, microgrids, Energy Independent Electric Vehicles EIV and other emerging hot topics impacted? How is multimode energy harvesting and energy harvesting without energy storage progressing? What hope is there of avoiding the many toxic materials involved in EH? What EH is powered by legal push and what is reverting back to batteries? What are the radically new forms of photovoltaics and electrodynamics all about such as solar roads and Airborne Wind Energy AWE? It is all here, replete with examples and simple explanations.
 
There are huge opportunities for materials companies in all this, from inorganics to composites and organics as we move to structural electronics - a materials play - instead of "components in a box". The report explains how, why, where and when.
Analyst access from IDTechEx
All report purchases include up to 30 minutes telephone time with an expert analyst who will help you link key findings in the report to the business issues you're addressing. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.
Further information
If you have any questions about this report, please do not hesitate to contact our report team at research@IDTechEx.com or call one of our sales managers:

AMERICAS (USA): +1 617 577 7890
ASIA (Japan and Korea): +81 3 3216 7209
EUROPE (UK) +44 1223 812300
1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
1.1.Definition
1.2.Features of EH
1.3.Low power vs high power off-grid
1.4.Types of EH energy source
1.5.Ford and EPA assessment of regeneration potential in a car
1.6.EH by power level
1.6.1.Needs by power level
1.6.2.Technologies by power level
1.6.3.Vibration and random movement harvesting
1.7.EH transducer options compared
1.8.Energy storage technologies in comparison
1.9.EH system architecture
1.10.Energy Harvesting Maturity
1.11.Market forecasts 2017-2027
1.12.Popularity by technology 2017-2027
1.12.1.Overview
1.12.2.Typical vibration sources encountered
1.12.3.The vibration harvesting opportunity
1.13.Some energy harvesting highlights of "IDTechEx Show!" Berlin May 2017
1.14.Micropelt iTRV - EnOcean Remote Management
1.15.Energy Independent ship opportunity
1.16.Solar cell and current inverter
2.INTRODUCTION
3.APPLICATIONS NOW AND IN FUTURE
3.1.Introduction
3.1.1.Energy harvesting is an immature industry
3.1.2.IFEVS EIV self-powers travel, oven, lighting
3.2.Where is EH used in general?
3.2.1.Examples of energy harvesting by power level
3.2.2.Hype and success: applications
3.2.3.Some EH applications by location
3.2.4.Power needs of electronic and electrical products
3.3.Regional differences
3.4.EH is sometimes introduced then abandoned
3.5.Lower power ICs and different design approach facilitate low power EH adoption
3.6.Building control, BIPV, IOT for communities, local grid
3.6.1.Introduction
3.6.2.Building controls: EnOcean
3.6.3.Building integrated photovoltaics BIPV
3.6.4.In communities: IOT
3.6.5.In communities: microgrid
3.7.Uses in vehicles
3.7.1.Land water and air: low to high power
3.7.2.EV end game: Energy Independent Vehicles EIV
3.7.3.Transitional options to EIV
3.8.Manufacturers
4.TECHNOLOGIES AND SYSTEMS
4.1.Overview
4.2.Comparison of options
4.2.1.Technology choice by intermittent power generated
4.2.2.EH technology choice by intermittent power generated
4.2.3.Roadmap for low power EH: Bosch
4.2.4.Potential efficiency
4.2.5.Hype and success - technology
4.2.6.Parameters
4.2.7.Multi-modal harvesting today
4.2.8.Integrated multi-modal: European Commission Powerweave project etc
4.2.9.Wi-Fi harvesting
5.TECHNOLOGY: ELECTRODYNAMIC
5.1.Overview
5.2.Choices of rotating electrical machine technology
5.3.Airborne Wind Energy AWE
5.3.1.TwingTec Switzerland 10 kW+, Ampyx Power
5.3.2.Google Makhani AWE 600kW trial, Enerkite
5.4.Typical powertrain components and regenerative braking
5.5.Trend to integration in vehicles
5.6.Human-powered electrodynamic harvesting
5.6.1.Knee Power
5.7.Electrodynamic vibration energy harvesting
5.7.1.Overview
5.8.Electrodynamic regenerative shock absorbers and self-powered active suspension
5.8.1.ClearMotion USA
5.9.Flywheel KERS vs motor regen. braking
5.10.3D and 6D movement
5.11.Next generation motor generators, turbine EH in vehicles
6.TECHNOLOGY: PHOTOVOLTAICS
6.1.Overview
6.2.pn junction vs alternatives
6.3.Wafer vs thin film
6.4.Important photovoltaic parameters
6.5.Some choices beyond silicon compared
6.6.Tightly rollable, foldable, stretchable PV will come
6.7.OPV
6.7.1.OPV and Opvius
6.7.2.Germany's KIT
6.8.Solar cell and current inverter
6.9.Increasing silicon photovoltaic efficiency
7.TECHNOLOGY: THERMOELECTRICS
7.1.Thermoelectrics: Doors Close, Doors Open
7.1.1.Tough place: but still they come
7.1.2.New prospects
7.2.Basis and fabrication of thermoelectric generators TEG
7.3.Choice of active materials
7.4.Benefits of Thin Film TE
7.5.TEG systems
7.6.Automotive TEG
7.7.Powering sensor transceivers on bus bars and hot pipes
7.8.High power thermoelectrics: tens of watts
7.9.High power thermoelectrics: kilowatt
8.TECHNOLOGY: PIEZOELECTRICS
8.1.Overview
8.2.Active materials
8.2.1.Overview
8.2.2.Exceptional piezo performance announced 2016
8.3.Piezo Effect - Direct
8.4.Piezo effect - converse
8.5.Piezo options compared
8.6.Piezo in cars - potential
8.6.1.Piezo EH powered tyre sensor
8.7.Piezo EH in helicopter
8.8.Consumer Electronics
8.9.Benefits of Thin Film
8.10.Benefits of elastomer: KAIST Korea
8.11.Vibration energy harvester (Joule Thief)
8.12.Challenges with high power piezoelectrics
8.13.Glycine
9.CAPACITIVE ELECTROSTATIC
9.1.Principle
9.2.Interdigitated to elastomer
9.3.Capacitive flexible
9.3.1.Dielectric elastomer generators
9.4.MEMS Electrostatic Scavengers
9.4.1.Advanced MEMS capacitive vibration harvester in 2016
9.5.Twistron from the University of Texas, Dallas
9.6.CRIEPI breakthrough?
10.MAGNETOSTRICTIVE, MICROBIAL, NANTENNA
10.1.Magnetostrictive
10.2.Microbial fuel cells
10.3.Nantenna-diode
11.TRIBOELECTRIC
11.1.Definition
11.2.Triboelectric dielectric series
11.3.Triboelectric dielectric series examples showing wide choice of properties
11.4.Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)
11.5.Achievement
11.6.Four ways to make a TENG
11.6.1.Overview
11.6.2.TENG modes with advantages, potential uses
11.6.3.Research focus on the four modes
11.6.4.Parametric advantages and challenges of triboelectric EH
 

About IDTechEx reports

What are the qualifications of the people conducting IDTechEx research?

Content produced by IDTechEx is researched and written by our technical analysts, each with a PhD or master's degree in their specialist field, and all of whom are employees. All our analysts are well-connected in their fields, intensively covering their sectors, revealing hard-to-find information you can trust.

How does IDTechEx gather data for its reports?

By directly interviewing and profiling companies across the supply chain. IDTechEx analysts interview companies by engaging directly with senior management and technology development executives across the supply chain, leading to revealing insights that may otherwise be inaccessible.
 
Further, as a global team, we travel extensively to industry events and companies to conduct in-depth, face-to-face interviews. We also engage with industry associations and follow public company filings as secondary sources. We conduct patent analysis and track regulatory changes and incentives. We consistently build on our decades-long research of emerging technologies.
 
We assess emerging technologies against existing solutions, evaluate market demand and provide data-driven forecasts based on our models. This provides a clear, unbiased outlook on the future of each technology or industry that we cover.

What is your forecast methodology?

We take into account the following information and data points where relevant to create our forecasts:
  • Historic data, based on our own databases of products, companies' sales data, information from associations, company reports and validation of our prior market figures with companies in the industry.
  • Current and announced manufacturing capacities
  • Company production targets
  • Direct input from companies as we interview them as to their growth expectations, moderated by our analysts
  • Planned or active government incentives and regulations
  • Assessment of the capabilities and price of the technology based on our benchmarking over the forecast period, versus that of competitive solutions
  • Teardown data (e.g. to assess volume of materials used)
  • From a top-down view: the total addressable market
  • Forecasts can be based on an s-curve methodology where appropriate, taking into account the above factors
  • Key assumptions and discussion of what can impact the forecast are covered in the report.

How can I be confident about the quality of work in IDTechEx reports?

Based on our technical analysts and their research methodology, for over 25 years our work has regularly received superb feedback from our global clients. Our research business has grown year-on-year.
 
Recent customer feedback includes:
"It's my first go-to platform"
- Dr. Didi Xu, Head of Foresight - Future Technologies, Freudenberg Technology Innovation
 
"Their expertise allows us to make data-driven, strategic decisions and ensures we remain aligned with the latest trends and opportunities in the market."
- Ralf Hug, Global Head of Product Management & Marketing, Marquardt

What differentiates IDTechEx reports?

Our team of in-house technical analysts immerse themselves in industries over many years, building deep expertise and engaging directly with key industry players to uncover hard-to-find insights. We appraise technologies in the landscape of competitive solutions and then assess their market demand based on voice-of-the-customer feedback, all from an impartial point of view. This approach delivers exceptional value to our customers—providing high-quality independent content while saving customers time, resources, and money.

Why should we pick IDTechEx research over AI research?

A crucial value of IDTechEx research is that it provides information, assessments and forecasts based on interviews with key people in the industry, assessed by technical experts. AI is trained only on content publicly available on the web, which may not be reliable, in depth, nor contain the latest insights based on the experience of those actively involved in a technology or industry, despite the confident prose.

How can I justify the ROI of this report?

Consider the cost of the IDTechEx report versus the time and resources required to gather the same quality of insights yourself. IDTechEx analysts have built up an extensive contact network over many years; we invest in attending key events and interviewing companies around the world; and our analysts are trained in appraising technologies and markets.
 
Each report provides an independent, expert-led technical and market appraisal, giving you access to actionable information immediately, rather than you having to spend months or years on your own market research.

Can I speak to analysts about the report content?

All report purchases include up to 30 minutes of telephone time with an expert analyst who will help you link key findings in the report to the business issues you're addressing. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.

What is the difference between a report and subscription?

A subscription from IDTechEx can include more reports, access to an online information platform with continuously updated information from our analysts, and access to analysts directly.

Before purchasing, I have some questions about the report, can I speak to someone?

Please email research@idtechex.com stating your location and we will quickly respond.

About IDTechEx

Who are IDTechEx's customers?

IDTechEx has served over 35,000 customers globally. These range from large corporations to ambitious start-ups, and from Governments to research centers. Our customers use our work to make informed decisions and save time and resources.

Where is IDTechEx established?

IDTechEx was established in 1999, and is headquartered in Cambridge, UK. Since then, the company has significantly expanded and operates globally, having served customers in over 80 countries. Subsidiary companies are based in the USA, Germany and Japan.

Questions about purchasing a report

How do I pay?

In most locations reports can be purchased by credit card, or else by direct bank payment.

How and when do I receive access to IDTechEx reports?

When paying successfully by credit card, reports can be accessed immediately. For new customers, when paying by bank transfer, reports will usually be released when the payment is received. Report access will be notified by email.

How do I assign additional users to the report?

Users can be assigned in the report ordering process, or at a later time by email.

Can I speak to someone about purchasing a report?

Please email research@idtechex.com stating your location and we will quickly respond.
 
An over $7bn market for energy harvesting transducers by 2027

Report Statistics

Slides 209
Forecasts to 2027
 

Customer Testimonial

quote graphic
"The resources provided by IDTechEx, such as their insightful reports and analysis, engaging webinars, and knowledgeable analysts, serve as valuable tools and information sources... Their expertise allows us to make data-driven, strategic decisions and ensures we remain aligned with the latest trends and opportunities in the market."
Global Head of Product Management and Marketing
Marquardt GmbH
 
 
 

Subscription Enquiry