© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

S. Nojavan, K. Zare (eds.)Electricity Marketshttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36979-8_1

1. Energy Harvesting Technologies and Market Opportunities

Farzad H. Panahi¹   and Fereidoun H. Panahi¹

(1)

Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Kurdistan, Iran

Farzad H. Panahi

Email: f.hpanahi@uok.ac.ir

Keywords

Energy harvesting technologiesMarket opportunitiesKey playersIntelligent mechanismsSensor networksGreen powered systems

Nomenclature

AP

Access point

BS

Base station

CH

Cluster head

D2D

Device-to-device

EE

Energy efficiency

EH

Energy harvesting

HER

Energy harvesting rate

EHT

Energy harvesting technology

FIS

Fuzzy inference system

FQLA

Fuzzy Q-learning algorithm

HetNet

Heterogeneous network

ICT

Information and communication technology

IoT

Internet of Things

GHG

Greenhouse gas

M2M

Machine-to-machine

PS

Power station

QLA

Q-learning algorithm

QoS

Quality of service

RF

Radio frequency

RL

Reinforcement learning

RPS

Renewable power supplier

RES

Renewable energy source

SG

Smart grid

WPT

Wireless power transfer

WSN

Wireless sensor network

UDN

Ultradense network

UE

User equipment

UWB

Ultrawide band

1.1 Introduction

Enhanced management of urban communities brings another concept, known as smart cities [1, 2], which enables environmental data gathering and better usage of city resources. Specific application areas of smart cities are intelligent transport systems, smart grids, home automation, smart agriculture, and structural health monitoring [3]. The realization of them strictly requires considerable advancements over edge systems and devices, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT). Indeed, detecting and controlling highlights of the IoT are essential empowering agents of this acknowledgment. Utilizing IoT and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) features, we can access a digitized world by means of the Internet connections, and draw one stage nearer to the Smart City idea [4, 5]. Obviously, in order to obtain nonstop tracking and control, an auxiliary or maybe a totally particular power supply needs to be prepared to the sensors. However, this strategy might also or would not be practical in some cases in general because of size constraints or environmental restrictions. Hence, energy harvesting (EH) strategies come into prominence to relieve the troubles of energy restrained networks via utilizing a stray supply or converting power from one shape to every other [6, 7].

Generally, EH, also known as energy scavenging, is the action by which energy is extracted from available external sources, commonly named as ambient energy sources. There is a wide assortment of ambient energy sources and relating EH technologies (EHTs) with various specialized applications. The degree of deliverable energy from every technology differs also in the range of low micro-Watt to milli-Watt. Indeed, this variety is a chance to design an appropriate EHT for IoT-gadgets according to the use cases. Some EHTs effectively offer the fundamental power yield to drive IoT gadgets. However, they may not be applicable. The energy harvester must fit in with the utilization case and the related energy forms, subjects which must be viewed when planning a gadget. In this chapter, a review of various sources, technologies, intelligent mechanisms, and also market opportunities for EH is presented.

1.2 Energy Harvesting Technologies and Challenges

Giving EH ability to smart systems and networks empowers the devices to consistently obtain their power from natural or man-made phenomena. Therefore, this gives promising features to wireless networks: self-sustainability and reliability with network lifetimes constrained by an internal equipment instead of the energy storage. Thus, EH-enabled wireless networks will make it feasible to grow new medicinal, surveillance, and security applications which are not generally practical with ordinary battery-controlled nodes. There are a few distinctive characteristic sources and related technologies for EH: electromagnetic, solar, indoor lighting, vibrational, thermal, biological, chemical, etc. [6, 8–14] (as can be observed in Fig. 1.1). However, energy might be obtained from man-made sources by means of wireless power transfer (WPT), in a controlled way.

Fig. 1.1

Different forms of ambient energy sources and corresponding EHTs [15]

It is clear that the development of an EHT takes time since it needs often profound researches. Thus, there is the risk that industry surrenders the technology. For instance, small manufactures working on some energy harvesters are not fundamentally developing them with their defined utilization as harvesters any more, but as temperature sensor nodes. Generally, the major challenges of current EHT can then be summarized as in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1

Major challenges of current EHTs

1.3 Energy Harvesting Markets and Key Players

Generally, the EH has been utilized for quite a long time for bike dynamos or solar panels. Today, it is widely applied to application fields, such as smart cities, automotive vehicles, and security systems. Development inside the areas of ICT and IoT and thus the spread of battery-based sensor systems are real power driving advances in EH and self-powered systems [16, 17]. The most well-known power sources utilized for EH are mechanical, thermal energy, and sunlight-based radiations. Recent advances in ultralow power technologies have accelerated the improvement of self-powered monitoring gadgets for a wide scope of utilizations consisting of smart grids (SGs), structural health monitoring, and biomedical telemetry [18–21]. A self-powered wireless sensor, that gains surrounding energy for driving its hardware, is among promising techniques for supporting a maintenance-free sensor network in smart networks.

The worldwide EH market demonstrates a stunning development: somewhere in the range of 2015 and 2019 it could sum at 21.9% and peak at 28% in 2019 (Fig. 1.2). Governments and public initiatives are the main drivers for EH market development. Public actors utilize EH as a key apparatus for gathering the rising energy request and saving power. In fact, EH supports SGs and IoT by powering wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that are fundamental to provide connectivity between devices. A huge number of sensors is required to monitor and manage network processes and the sensors should be powered. Ordinarily, batteries were utilized to enable the sensing nodes but they have a restricted lifetime and in a network with a huge number of wireless sensors, replacement of the batteries will not be applicable. It should be noted that EH-powered sensors need less maintenance and are easier to arrange than batteries and also more comfortable to manage in mobile-sensing strategies. To sum up, development of IoT and energy-efficient communication infrastructures for sensor networks is driving interest for wireless and battery-less sensors which will be increasingly more powered by EH. Indeed, EH wireless solutions find increasing applications in smart networks due to their low-cost installation and maintenance. In addition, EH-based wireless technology is the reliable communication strategy to provide connectivity among thousands of nodes in smart networks.

Fig. 1.2

Global EH market 2014–2019

European Commission supports the business with motivation and interests in R&D of EH and storage gadgets. This is rational with European priorities as the Commission distinguishes the feasible supply of energy as the grand challenges confronting human communities. Indeed, green power trend is advancing the market as a lot of sustainable and renewable power sources offer an appropriate platform for the EH process. As mentioned before, EH empowers IoT and ICT by driving sensors arranges that are fundamental to associate and organize devices. Countless sensors are expected to make network procedures work and sensors should be powered. Normally, batteries were utilized to enable the sensing hardwires but they have a restricted lifetime and in a framework with a huge number of remote gadgets, the replacement of batteries is really impossible. On the other side, EH-powered sensors are self-sufficient, require less support, and are simpler to set up than batteries. Totally, advancement of IoT and ICT is driving interest for remote and battery-less sensors which will be increasingly more supported by EH.

The market for home automation is booming today and it is estimated to have 5% growth in the range of 2015–2019. Indeed, EHTs find increasing applications in this area thanks to their high cost-saving potential in setup and maintenance. Compared to copper wiring or battery, EHT is the ideal communication standards to interconnect a huge number of devices with various applications. Based on the report EH Market Size, Share, Growth Forecast 2019 To 2027, published by Market Research Future (MRFR), EH market is increasingly influenced by growing demands for renewable power sources (RPSs). The worldwide EH market is additionally studied in detail in the report, which aims to find out how the market is likely to progress over the forecast period and what are the significant drivers affecting the market’s direction over that period. In fact, EH is a basic term for the way toward catching the energy from a specific power source and storing it for later use. In spite of its simple definition, the EH market growth has not been rapid to develop because of specialized challenges in designing power storage systems. The EH market is accordingly to grow at a steady rate over the forecast period, driven by the growing interests for a considerable progress in the field of EHTs. However, organizations and new companies are expected to appear despite the heavy investments required to enter it, given the attractive growth opportunities. Generally, the global EH market is segmented on the basis of energy source, technology, application, and region (Table 1.2).

Table 1.2

Main segments for global EH market

The developing interest for renewable powers such as solar- and wind-oriented energies is additionally to be a noteworthy driver for the worldwide EH market. As the generation of electric power through wind- and sunlight-based mechanism is transient and temperamental for steady power delivery, EHTs become hugely important in this area. Expanding endeavors are probably going to be taken in these fields to create successful EH frameworks over the coming years, prompting consistent development of the worldwide EH market over the forecast period. Key players in the worldwide EH market are probably going to concentrate on research endeavors to think of strong answers for the main consumers. Teaming up with outer research foundations is also likely to be the main way for players in the EH market, as many promising advancements in energy storage happen in research organizations. Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America presently dominate the worldwide EH market and are probably going to remain as the key players over the forecast period because of the growing government supports to renewable energy initiatives and also the growing presence of leading players in the region, which has prompted the improvement of a solid research segment in the field.

1.4 Intelligent Mechanisms for Energy Harvesting

The Internet of Things (IoT) and intelligent wireless sensor networks as a promising improvement for future telecommunications will make everything smart and empower them associating with one another instantly and transferring data pervasively [22, 23]. However, there are different challenges toward communication networks deployment consisting of security, quality of service (QoS), reliability, energy affairs, and technologies [16, 24–34]. Obviously, the IoT connected things will be more than the human population in near future. For this tremendous system of interconnected sensors, batteries are the best sources to give the ability to work the services. On the other side, IoT modules and devices require longer lifetime and supplanting the batteries oftentimes is impractical [26]. Consequently, as referenced previously, EH strategy is one of the responses to this issue. The EH-aided WSNs can work for a considerable length of time and years with the minimum level of human interventions [16].

Regarding the energy efficiency (EE) as a key basis in the designing of communication systems, some feasible approaches should be taken into account to overcome the restrictions of energy sources and network lifetime [35]. In this way, EH strategy in intelligent networks [17] has been proposed as a promising technique for expanding the lifetime of mobile and low-power nodes. Recently, RF-based EH strategies have been presented to enable portable sensors and devices to gather energy from radiated radio frequency signals in the form of ambient or devoted RF sources [36, 37]. In addition, regarding the impressive benefits of wireless powering energy-constrained sensors and maximizing the lifetime of sensor networks, EH techniques have been extensively investigated in different scenarios for WSNs [38].

Inspired by the effective performance of intelligent mechanisms and learning-based algorithms to design practical scenarios over smart networks, many researches have been focused on the acceleration of the battery charging process [39, 40]. In some other works, intelligent algorithms are utilized to guide sensor movements toward allocated power stations (PSs) as wireless battery charging points, in order to define an energy-efficient EH-enabled network. The approach depends on finding the areas of the PSs during successive movements of the mobile sensors. Thus, as stated, every sensor freely utilizes the intelligent algorithms to gradually discover a PS in the system. In a general model, considering downlink transmission, a two-tier HetNet for energy-based cooperation scenarios among sensor nodes is investigated. More explicitly, there exist N mobile sensors along with three kinds of BSs, consisting of a central BS and Q cluster heads (CHs) and furthermore M PSs, randomly distributed over the network, powered by both electrical grid and renewable power sources (RPSs) (as can be observed in Fig. 1.3).

Fig. 1.3

EH model consisting of PSs and mobile sensors

As mentioned before, to make the EH process smart, we may have to utilize intelligent or learning-based mechanisms. So far, various kinds of reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms have been introduced [39]. Indeed, the Q-learning algorithm (QLA), as one of the most popular RL algorithms, computes the table of all values Q(s, a) using continuous estimation, to form a Q-table. It should be noted that Q(s, a) represents the expected value or the quality factor for a specific problem, which can be acquired in state S = {s 1, s 2, …s N} for the sensor action a and the corresponding reward value r. Consequently, the related Q-table is formed according to the iterative equation as follows:

(1.1)

where β ∈ (0, 1] is the learning rate and,

(1.2)

Here, the maximization operator indicates the greatest value obtained by a mobile sensor for the action a ′ that may be done in next state s ′. In fact, the basic QLA performance can be effectively improved by means of accurate tracking of the state-action history. This is defined by the competency factor λ ∈ [0, 1], thus the enhanced learning strategy is called Q(λ)-learning [40]. The parameter λ for each state increases after the state-action process, and then exponentially decreases until the state is not checked again [39].

In general, QLA enables the mobile sensors to learn from interaction with the network, where a reward mechanism is defined for the learning process of EH. However, combining a fuzzy-control strategy with the QLA (i.e., FQLA) leads to an enhanced self-adaptive algorithm for pragmatic applications (Fig. 1.4). Indeed, the way of knowledge representations can be expressed as the primary contrast in the model between the QLA and FQLA. In other words, fuzzy rules for evaluating the explored knowledge are exploited in the FQLA, while a basic look-up table (i.e., Q-table) is used in the QLA [40]. The fuzzy inference system (FIS) that plays a key role in making final decisions for FQLA includes a set of rules R and competing actions for each rule. Accordingly, the mobile sensor (i.e., the learning agent) needs to detect the best conclusion based on the related rule. It implies that an action with the highest Q-value between the feasible actions for a rule is selected. Clearly, the mobile sensors (i.e., the learning agents) should advance toward power stations (PSs) according to FQLA’s decisions to detect the nearest PS. In order to estimate the optimal policy, the state-action value function Q π(s, a) is approximated in case of taking action a ∈ A s in state s.

Fig. 1.4

Block diagram of FQLA to control movements of a mobile sensor

Here, a practical smart scenario for mobile sensors is considered to investigate the power-saving impacts of the EH process on sensor networks. In addition, in order to evaluate whether this methodology can quicken the EH procedure in mobile sensors, a series of simulations is performed. It should be noted that the simulated environment is defined based on conventional WSN configurations, then simulation results corresponding to the conventional (Fig. 1.5a) and a FQLA-based EH models (Fig. 1.5b) are presented, respectively. Here, a basic definition to assess the EH efficiency over the system is introduced. In this way, the EH rate (EHR) is defined as

to show the effectiveness of EH process for all mobile sensors distributed over the network, where k EH is a positive coefficient and $$ {d}_{\mathrm{EH}}^t $$ indicates average distance between sensors and PSs at the time of t. According to the results (Fig. 1.6), a performance degradation can be observed when the exact knowledge of PSs’ locations is not available. In this case, unlike the perfect case, mobile sensors are exploring PSs using partial location information prepared by M2M communications.

Fig. 1.5

Coverage map for conventional and intelligent EH-enabled WSNs. (a) Conventional EH model. (b) FQLA-based EH model

Fig. 1.6

EH rate for static and dynamic sensor scenarios

Now, as a special case, another intelligent methodology is investigated in which a centralized image-processing (IP) technique is utilized to monitor the estimated network coverage and then to identify the potential locations for EH, i.e., red regions which indicate high level of RF ambient energy. The mobile sensors at that point endeavor to get to these areas during smart motions, in order to improve the network lifetime. This process is modeled based on the simulated HetNet coverage as plotted in Fig. 1.7. As stated before, smart sensors around the HetNet will try to move toward these areas to harvest energy and therefore to accelerate the battery charging process over some potential areas for the EH. As a result, the accuracy of the estimation of network coverage plays a great role to provide an efficient EH. In this technique, red areas are called peak energy points, and are assumed as the peak points of mountains. To continue, the IP-based algorithm, called peak detection algorithm can be exploited to find the peak points, which is the process of exploring for the mountains’ peaks, i.e., red areas. In fact, a peak can be deduced as a higher location (i.e., higher energy for the EH model) compared with surrounding regions. Note that, in general, the concept of peaks in a specific geographical space has various interpretations [41].

Fig. 1.7

Coverage of a sensor network in coexistence with a two-tier cellular HetNet

Here, the peak energy regions, i.e., the red areas in the network (Fig. 1.8), are determined. As can be seen in Fig. 1.9, the peak detection is done using a mean-shift algorithm [41]. We denote by Γ (μ, v) the correlation surface having the origin at the highest peak. Note that Γ is obtained via the mean-shift algorithm in which the estimated points for the EH peaks are iteratively updated over the network coverage. Therefore, in an iterative way and according to mean-shift rule, each point (x, y) is updated until a stable state is reached.

Fig. 1.8

Coverage peak detection (i.e., potential EH areas) for sensor networks

Fig. 1.9

Peak detection process for the network coverage based on the mean-shift algorithm

The simulation results given will show how the FQLA can control the sensors’ mobility to reach those potential EH areas based on smart movements (Fig. 1.10). Consequently we can understand how the FQLA can speed up the process of wireless EH, i.e., battery charging, for randomly distributed sensors over the network. As mentioned, the essential methodology is built on a centralized IP approach. More specifically, a centralized IP unit is deployed to monitor and estimate the instant coverage map of the HetNet, and then to detect the red areas, according to the described peak detection process. By checking the simulation results (Fig. 1.11), as expected, one can similarly observe the performance degradation in the case of partial peak information for the average EHR. The precise information of peak locations are assumed to be accessible to all sensors when the perfect case is considered.

Fig. 1.10

Mobility of sensors to detect potential EH areas (i.e., peaks) over the HetNet

Fig. 1.11

EH rate for static and dynamic sensor scenarios

1.5 Conclusions and Suggested Readings

The ever-growing market of communication devices leads to increase in demands for efficient power solutions. In addition, the developing interest for green powered systems and smart networks is additionally to be a noteworthy driver for the worldwide EH market. The problem of battery lifetime and EHTs is as relevant to research organizations as it is to companies and consumers. Currently, a few standalone EHTs can help to significantly alleviate this issue but researchers and companies should collaborate together to come up with intelligent EH mechanisms to impact upon the design and appearance of future smart networks. This chapter reviewed profound analyses and contributions in the board area of EHTs and EH market along with some intelligent EH scenarios through computer simulation. Table 1.3 summarizes the general topics to prepare a comprehensive perspective on the recent studies in this area.

Table 1.3

Major topics and the latest research article on energy harvesting technologies

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