Energy Harvesting Technologies

Citation

Korostynska, O. (2011), "Energy Harvesting Technologies", Sensor Review, Vol. 31 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2011.08731aae.001

Energy Harvesting Technologies

Energy Harvesting Technologies

Article Type: Book review From: Sensor Review, Volume 31, Issue 1

Edited by Shashank Priya and Daniel J. Inman,Springer,2009,$129,524 pp.,ISBN: 978-0-387-76463-4,Web link: www.springer.com/engineering/energy+technology/book/978-0-387-76463-4,

In recent decades, Energy Harvesting Technologies, such as wind turbines, hydroelectric generators, solar panels and so forth, have turned harvesting into a growing contributor to the world’s energy needs. This technology offers two significant advantages over battery-powered solutions: virtually inexhaustible energy sources and little or no adverse environmental effects. Energy harvesting’s new frontier is an array of micro-scale technologies that scavenge milliwatts from solar, vibrational, thermal and biological sources. Wireless sensor nodes for structural health monitoring, embedded and implanted sensor nodes for medical applications, powering unmanned vehicles and operating security systems in household conditions – all these novel technologies and applications became possible due to advances in energy harvesting methods and materials.

The long-awaited book entitled Energy Harvesting Technologies provides both the fundamentals and state of the art in the area. It consists of 19 chapters and an appendix, which comprehensively cover the hot topic of energy harvesting. Each chapter in the book is written by world-class scientists from both academia and industry, and a due credit should be given to the editors who managed to assemble this unique material.

This book has a clearly organized structure. The content covers basic principles for the design and fabrication of bulk and micro-scale energy harvesting systems based upon piezoelectric, electromagnetic and thermoelectric technologies. It also provides a comprehensive overview of theory and design rules required for fabrication of efficient electronics and batteries. In addition, it covers the prominent applications for energy harvesting devices illustrating the state-of-the-art prototypes.

For the reason of high-technical novelty, however, the book can hardly be used as a classroom text for the undergraduate students. Nevertheless, it will be of significant interest and benefit to scientists, researchers, engineers, and postgraduate students involved with design, development and maintenance of novel power sources, sensor networks, smart materials, alternative energy outsourcing and other existing or emerging applications.

It is envisaged that the second edition of this invaluable reference book would grow into a multivolume handbook or encyclopedia on Energy Harvesting Technologies. Hopefully, each chapter would be expanded to include basic theory on the subject in more details, which would be of substantial help to undergraduate students of a wide range of disciplines.

I would definitely recommend to everyone interested in Energy Harvesting Technologies to buy this book.

Olga KorostynskaUniversity of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland