Emerging Dimensions in the Energy Harvesting

Energy is everywhere in the environment surrounding us i.e. it is available in the form of thermal energy, light (solar) energy, wind energy, and mechanical energy etc. However, the energy from these sources is often found in such minute quantities that it cannot supply adequate power for any viable purpose. In fact, it has not been possible to capture such energy sufficiently to perform any useful work. But now the scenario is changing due to new technologies on energy harvesting being developed and used. Energy harvesting is a process of capturing minute amounts of energy from one or more of these naturally-occurring energy sources, accumulating them and storing them for later use. Energy-harvesting devices efficiently and effectively capture, accumulate, store, condition and manage this energy and supply it in a form that can be used to perform a helpful task. Though the energy harvesting has been a phenomenon in solar and wind energy areas, now time has come to venture into other energy areas and to improve our harvesting capabilities, proliferate harvesting devices, and apply them to useful systems. This paper reviews significance and applications areas of the energy harvesting. It also visits the design considerations and different types of energy harvesting systems.