Energy Harvesting

Forget the obsession with driverless autonomous cars; energy independent vehicles are the megatrend. Electric land vehicles, boats, underwater craft and aircraft already exist that never plug in or refuel.

High Power Energy Harvesting (HPEH) is a term beginning to be used for creation of electricity where it is needed using ambient "free" energy. That zero-pollution, high-energy conversion typically captures light (photovoltaics), heat difference (thermoelectrics and heat pumps) and movement (electrodynamics).

Thermoelectric energy harvesting is no longer the Cinderella of energy harvesting - a subject previously dominated by photovoltaics and electrodynamics such as the bicycle dynamo and the electric vehicle's regenerative braking.

Energy harvesting spans microwatts to megawatts because it is the creation of electricity where it is needed using wind, sun, movement, heat difference, friction and other ambient energy.

It seems obvious; energy harvesting is intermittent, so combine different types to make it continuous and therefore much more useful.

Plenty of kilowatts from no fuel. This dream ticket is a reality today from the rapid adoption of high power energy harvesting. Energy harvesting converts ambient energy into electricity where it is needed, off-grid.

The term 'energy harvesting' is most typically applied to powering small electronic devices using say sunshine, vibration or temperature.

Elastic piezoelectric generators are being developed with microwatts demonstrated and watts in prospect for large formats.

Energy harvesting is the creation of off-grid electricity where it is needed using ambient energy, from sunshine to vibration or temperature difference.

Each week we come across brilliant new technologies from companies and research institutes and we want to help such enterprises showcase their products to the audiences of our events - which are typically the largest in the world on the topic.