Energy Harvesting Systems Will Reach Nearly $375 Million in Annual Revenue by 2020

Energy harvesting systems, which convert ambient energy to useable electrical energy, offer an attractive alternative to battery power for portable devices. Using a variety of energy sources including electromagnetic radiation, thermal energy, kinetic energy, and mechanical energy, energy harvesting technology is already powering a range of consumer products, such as laptops and mobile phones. 

“The idea of mobile devices that charge themselves continuously, without intervention, access to electrical outlets, or unwieldy cords, has been prevalent among both developers and users for some time,” says Eric Woods, research director with Navigant Research. “This is the future of mobile devices – and the technology to make it happen has arrived.”

Another important application for energy harvesting is pervasive sensor networks, where thousands of sensors monitor all measurable commodities, in real time. These devices diligently work to provide important information about temperature, humidity, security, machine health, structural health, and much more. As an alternative technology to power these networks, energy harvesting offers several advantages over conventional power supplies, according to the report, and developers are quickly becoming familiar with how to implement this technology into ever more innovative applications.

The report, “Energy Harvesting”, analyzes existing and emerging energy harvesting technologies in depth, looking at nine end-use consumer and industrial application segments and the four most successful transduction methods for converting ambient energy. Key industry players are profiled and global market forecasts, segmented by application, technology, and world region, extend through 2020. The report also includes extensive technology segmentation that shows key implementation strategies for the most common energy harvesting technologies operating in portable, pervasive, and autonomous systems. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the Navigant Research website.