2-April-2020 By Jeffrey Cooper

Energy Harvesting- A New Hope

I just wrote an article last week about the future potential of energy harvesting for IoT. Right now, it is only limited to a few uses, that are amenable to solar or air-driven energy conversion. Gradually, newer technologies will come online and make it feasible to use alternative sources.

I was excited this week to see this advance by MIT scientists. A graphene-based material was able to harvest energy from terahertz radiation emitted by WiFi networks (as noise) as well as the lower end of the infrared range of light. That means that wasted radiation from your home network can be used to store energy for indoor sensors, reducing or eliminating battery replacement in retrofit systems. It also offers an opportunity to harvest thermal energy in a way similar to how solar cells work, but with these longer wavelengths of light.

They have applied for a patent and believe this will work at room temperature. While I expect this to be some years before it is available commercially and economically, it is exciting nonetheless. An early use of it is for implanted medical devices- something where cost is less a consideration, especially when you take into account that implanted devices require surgery to replace them.

Check out the article on MIT’s website for more information.