Energy Harvesting for Electronic Devices 2020-2040

The 221 page IDTechEx report, "Energy Harvesting for Electronic Devices 2020-2040" comes at just the right time. The world's first self-powered smartwatches have just arrived. They are not full-function but we are getting there. That billion a year harvester potential will be followed by similar numbers of Internet of Things nodes but why will Tesla jump in? Energy harvesting is a key enabling technology for these when it was not the case for the emergence of mobile phones and computers. Indeed, the hand crank/solar radio graduating to be the pendulum generator/solar watch shows how two forms of harvesting in one device are increasingly seen, one smartwatch melding thermoelectrics and solar.

 

Indeed, wireless, no-battery building controls harvest up to three modes. That multiplier effect powers demand well beyond $2 billion in 2030 and much more beyond, on IDTechEx 20 year forecasts. What next? Winners? Losers? Technology and sales forecasts? All in the report because of its unique scope and PhD level insights. Low power wireless networks, 5G, smart skin patches electrically powered by sweat, implants and medical wearables triboelectrically and electrodynamically powered by heartbeats, temperature differences, body movements. All are on the way but there is more.

 

The 25 page executive summary and conclusions is easily read by those in a hurry. Many new infograms pull together the needs, challenges, potential and compare forecasts/ leaders/ market drivers and battery elimination milestones ahead. Dip into the next 25 pages of new 20 year forecasts as you wish - triboelectric, photovoltaic, electrodynamic, thermoelectric, piezoelectric and other backed by forecasts for those smartwatches, pico products, wearable technologies, medical, IoT and other uses. Understand why Apple and Boeing will be involved.

 

Chapter 2 introduces the principles, compares the technologies in many ways including vibration harvesting comparisons, what exactly is needed and 38 companies to contact in IoT, LPWAN and so on. Chapter 3 explains 12 photovoltaic technologies and their future with many infograms. Significance of the 2020 Garmin smartwatch having solar glass, why is stretchable photovoltaics coming in? It is all here.

 

Chapter 4 explains why IDTechEx believes triboelectrics is coming from nowhere with its initial sales of dust-filtering self-charging face masks in 2019 to be a strong contender overall. It will use non-toxic, affordable materials in a dazzling array of applications. An example is work on a smartwatch integral battery + harvester in one smart composite. The Chinese government is massively supporting triboelectric harvester research with many research centres and over 200 PhD projects at a time.

 

Chapter 5 explores the burgeoning thermoelectric improvements and applications from smartwatches to IoT nodes and fit-and-forget industrial uses. Pyroelectrics get less mention because of its poor potential. Chapter 6 surprises with electrodynamics technology presented and how has already replaced tens of millions of batteries by using microturbine generators in electronic toilets and pipeline sensors, similar electrodynamics in Seiko, Swatch, Tissot and many more watches. Hand-crank and pull-charged medical and consumer electronics are proliferating. Why the big effort on electrodynamic and thermoelectric harvesting in humans? We need fit-and-forget implants dealing with the epidemic of diabetes. The pacemaker has already saved over three million lives but the 600,000 pacemakers now implanted every year have batteries lasting no more than seven years. That is part of the answer.

 

Chapter 7 does it all for piezoelectrics. Chapter 8 rounds off with harvesting man-made ambient electromagnetic radiation from 50Hz power lines to the new terahertz inventions and also other harvesting options.

 

Throughout these technology chapters there are common themes such as the immense amount of new work on flexible, transparent, biocompatible and stretchable versions and how they will transform wearables and healthcare. Another over-arching theme is battery elimination even extending to woven supercapacitors or no storage at all. Throughout there are many ghost diagrams, photographs and infograms. It is based on 20 years of ongoing research by multilingual PhD level experts travelling, interviewing and benchmarking. The report's emphasis is on creating new business, including identification of gaps in the market. There is much on the new advanced materials needed, on harvester opportunities and new products benefiting society.

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