Nebula Public Library

Energy harvesting (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging) is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy), captured, and stored. Frequently, this term is applied when speaking about small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics and wireless sensor networks. One of the main advantages is that it makes small devices truly autonomous, since the replacement of batteries will become obsolete.