iSay - How to harness the potential of energy harvesting technology?

Over ten years ago Energy harvesting was known only to a small group of research engineers. but if you google it today you will find nearly two million hits and there is now a diverse range of energy-saving electronic products on the market that draw energy from their surroundings.

In building and industrial automation alone, the opportunities for energy harvesting products are inexhaustible. Particularly now, with the arrival of wireless plug & play modules that work energyautonomously and bidirectionally. This means, for example, that a room temperature sensor can transmit its telegram with the measured temperature value and can receive a message for set point correction along with the current time[..]

When it comes to wireless transmission, an optimum wireless protocol should combine maximum reliability of transmission and proof against collision for 300 metres free-field range with a minimal energy requirement of about 30 µJ for a single wireless telegram. The process works with extremely short telegrams, randomly controlled and repeated twice in the space of 30 milliseconds to avoid any collision.

EnOcean, with its batteryless wireless modules, is a pacesetter in the development of fully energyautonomous applications in building automation. The technology is also gaining traction in industrial plants for reliable monitoring of machine status, simplification of cabling and retrieval of data from inaccessible locations.

(Source www.designspark.com, 20.01.2011)