Energy Harvesting & Storage

An insect's internal chemicals can be converted to electricity, potentially providing power for sensors, recording devices or to control the bug, a group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University report.

Researchers at the Polytechnic School of Montreal in Canada have built a battery that can be woven into a garment.

Within a few years, people in remote villages in the developing world may be able to make their own solar panels, at low cost, using otherwise worthless agricultural waste as their raw material.

Aerospace engineers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor have developed a prototype device that could power a pacemaker using vibrations in the chest cavity that are due mainly to heartbeats.

A Stanford University research team has designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. The long-term goal of the research is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges cars and trucks as they drive down the road.

Promethean's Thermal Energy Battery is a technology aimed at bringing cold-storage infrastructure to emerging economies.

Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. (IPS) has announced that their award-winning THINERGY® Micro-Energy Cell (MEC) products are the ideal energy storage solution for many Bluetooth® Smart (also known as Bluetooth Low Energy) devices.

An innovative low-cost smart paint that can detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges before structural damage occurs is being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have recently published research into bubble propelled microrockets for use in the human stomach.

Ramtron International Corporation, developer and supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (F-RAM) and integrated semiconductor products, has announced the world's lowest energy nonvolatile memory product.

IDTechEx's Energy Harvesting & WSN conference in Berlin, on May 15 and 16 this year (www.IDTechEx.com/EH ) will focus both on wireless sensors as well as the photovoltaic and other harvesting technologies that are being integrated and are creating exciting new market segments for solar cells.

Researchers from the University at Buffalo, Army Research Laboratory and Air Force Office of Scientific Research have developed a new, nanomaterials-based technology that has the potential to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells up to 45 percent.

A team of researchers at the University of Cambridge led by Professor Arokia Nathan are working on harvesting energy from light to power an OLED display in a step towards energy harvesting for smartphones.

BACnet building automation products from KMC Controls has now been augmented to include wireless sensors. These new sensors employ EnOcean energy-harvesting wireless technology.

A cell phone-charging, mileage-counting, LCD-sporting stroller, with generators in the rear wheels that charge it as you walk.

Boston University researchers have demonstrated a new way to efficiently trap and enhance light in nanoscale structures and nanopatterned thin films, which can significantly improve performance of photonic and electronic devices such as nanosensors, thin-film organic solar cells and optical nanochips.

An industrial designer based in London, has created AIRE, a concept mask that converts wind energy (provided by the wearer's breath) into electricity for the recharging of small electronic devices.

In an example of life imitating art, biologists and bioengineers at UC San Diego have created a living neon sign composed of millions of bacterial cells that periodically fluoresce in unison like blinking light bulbs.

BASF has invested $50 million to acquire an equity ownership position in Sion Power, developers of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries, based in Tucson, Arizona.

Amazon Kindle owners can now harness the power of the sun to illuminate and charge their e-readers, using the new SolarKindle Lighted Cover, which was unveiled at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

2011 turned out to be a very interesting year for energy harvesting, full of scientific advances, technology breakthroughs and new product developments. IDTechEx predicts that the trend is set to continue, with further developments expected in 2012, along with expansion of commercialization efforts which will push energy harvesting adoption forward.

Eco Wave Power has completed the construction and testing phase of its first sea wave energy generation models the "Wave Clapper", and the "Power Wing".

Through incorporating Invelox, a technology exclusive to SheerWind, wind speed is increased to improve power output and efficiency.

This year marks a milestone in the history of the Alliance since there will be three "world's first" product announcements made at AHR.

Engineers at the University of Houston have used quantum mechanical calculations to show that by creating holes of a specific pattern in a sheet of graphene, they can make graphene behave like a piezoelectric material.

At Eco Products 2011 in Tokyo, Sony demonstrated a battery which runs on shredded paper and produces water as waste.

Makani Power is developing Airborne Wind Turbines to extract energy from the powerful, consistent winds at high altitudes.

GreenPeak Technologies has announced the launch of the new GP570 chip that will allow the development of low cost motion-enabled remote controls, addressing the growing demand for smarter and intuitive navigation of interactive entertainment services offered by operators.

New Energy Technologies, Inc. a developer of technologies for generating sustainable electricity, is pleased to announce the appointments of Dr. Scott R. Hammond as Principal Scientist, and Dr. Christopher M. Harris to the Company's Board of Advisors.

Nokia has completed a research project on phone charging using harvested solar energy. So can the sun be relied on to charge your phone?

New Energy Technologies, Inc. and the City of Roanoke, Virginia successfully debuted the world's first-of-its-kind rumble strip, capable of generating sustainable electricity.

How small can a solar cell be and still be a powerhouse? How about six hundred microns wide — about the diameter of a dot made by a ballpoint pen? The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently validated greater than 41 percent efficiency at a concentration of 1,000 suns for tiny cells made by Semprius — one of the highest efficiencies recorded at this concentration.

Computer giant Apple recently applied for patents for hydrogen batteries, which may make lighter batteries that are more energy efficient and therefore last longer perhaps for weeks at a time.

Research led by a team from the University of Barcelona has identified a new material that exhibits an inverse barocaloric effect at room temperature, which means that it cools when pressure is applied, unlike most other materials.

Imagine if the next coat of paint you put on the outside of your home generates electricity from light—electricity that can be used to power the appliances and equipment on the inside.

The University of Wollongong team along with researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have created large marble-size pellets of thermoelectric nanomaterials.

Imagine a cellphone battery that stayed charged for more than a week and recharged in just 15 minutes. That dream battery could be closer to reality thanks to Northwestern University research.

Industrial designer Benjamin Wright has created a concept Piezoelectric Energy Harvester using emerging materials. He wanted to use a new material, piezoelectric rubber, to incentivize wheat production in Afghanistan.

The Holistic project joins up three different research fields, including energy harvesting and MEMS processing methods, low-power embedded computing systems, and electronic design automation.

The engineering student received the accolade for his work on the design of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that would be powered by the sun and wind.

Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent that has an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum.

Cross-industry poll delivers landslide victory for ECT 310, EnOcean's advanced thermal energy harvesting module enabling greener buildings, factories and homes.

Imec, Polyera and international chemical group Solvay have achieved a new world-record efficiency of 8.3% for polymer-based single junction organic solar cells in an inverted device stack.

Harvard biologist and engineer Peter Girguis presented his research on a living battery at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean which is fueled by microbes that live near hydrothermal vents.

Researchers at the University of Washington are working on the design, construction and in vivo rabbit testing of a wirelessly powered contact lens display.

SunPower Corp has announced that the company is providing solar cells to the Solar Impulse project.

Scientists at University of West England have published the world's first research paper on work that tested the viability of urine as a potential fuel for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) in order to directly produce electricity.

Foam-based graphene keeps oxygen flowing in battery that holds promise for electric vehicles.

Imec and Holst Centre have announced that they have made a micromachined harvester for vibration energy with a record output power of 489µW.