Urban areas face increasing pressure to meet rising energy demands while simultaneously reducing their carbon footprint. Traditional energy sources are often inefficient and environmentally detrimental, leading to an urgent need for sustainable alternatives. Energy harvesting, also known as energy scavenging, presents a promising solution to this pressing issue. By capturing and converting ambient energy from various sources into usable electrical power, energy harvesting can significantly enhance the sustainability and resilience of urban environments.
Energy harvesting technology works by capturing energy from natural and human-made sources such as solar radiation, thermal gradients, mechanical vibrations, and even radiofrequency signals. This process involves the use of advanced materials and devices such as photovoltaic cells, thermoelectric generators, piezoelectric materials, and electromagnetic transducers. These devices are capable of converting different types of ambient energy into electrical energy, which can then be stored in batteries or supercapacitors for later use. For instance, photovoltaic cells convert sunlight into electricity, while piezoelectric materials generate power from mechanical stress or vibrations.
The implementation of energy harvesting systems in cities is crucial for several reasons. First, it provides a reliable and renewable source of power for urban infrastructure, including streetlights, sensors, and public transportation systems. This reduces dependency on conventional energy grids and lowers greenhouse gas emissions. Second, energy harvesting can enhance the efficiency and lifespan of battery-powered devices, such as smartphones and wearable technology, by providing a supplementary power source. This not only benefits consumers but also contributes to reducing electronic waste.
By integrating energy harvesting devices into the urban fabric, cities can create self-sustaining systems that monitor and manage energy consumption more effectively. For example, smart sensors powered by ambient energy can continuously collect data on air quality, traffic flow, and infrastructure health, enabling city planners to make data-driven decisions and improve urban living conditions.
Provider of energy harvesting wireless technology, specifically switches powered by the kinetic energy of a button press.
United Kingdom · Startup
Creates flooring technology that converts the kinetic energy of footsteps into electricity and data.
Produces Powerfoyle, a solar cell material that harvests light from both indoor and outdoor sources to power electronics.
Global leader in building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) glass, offering transparent and colored photovoltaic glass for facades.
Develops wireless power technology that harvests radio frequency (RF) energy to power devices remotely.
Developers of UE Power™, a transparent photovoltaic coating that converts light into electricity without compromising visible transparency.
Develops organic photovoltaic (OPV) modules using inkjet printing to harvest indoor light for low-power devices.
United Kingdom · Startup
Develops self-powered wireless sensors using parametric resonance vibration harvesting.
Netherlands · Company
A semiconductor company (acquired by Nexperia) specializing in energy harvesting power management ICs (PMICs).
Develops vibration energy harvesting sensors for Industrial IoT applications.
Paper
Scalable lens-enhanced broadbeam mmWave harvester delivering tens of milliwatts for wireless power transfer in next-generation smart city environmentsScientific Reports · Dec 16, 2025
Proposes a scalable, dielectric lens-enhanced mmWave energy harvester capable of delivering tens of milliwatts from 5G networks for smart city applications, addressing the need for maintenance-free energy solutions.
Paper
Energy Harvesting for IoT Sensors in Smart Buildings: A Path to Sustainable Energy SolutionsHalmstad University · Oct 28, 2025
Investigates a hybrid energy harvesting system combining photovoltaic and thermoelectric generators to sustainably power IoT sensors in smart buildings, eliminating battery reliance.
Article
Energy Harvesting in Smart CitiesUniversity of Exeter · Aug 1, 2025
Examines the integration of energy harvesting capabilities into wireless sensors to eliminate battery replacement costs and enhance sustainability in smart city environments.
Article
Energy Harvesting is making Smart Cities even smarterONiO · May 9, 2025
Discusses the transition from battery-powered IoT to energy harvesting solutions in smart city infrastructure to handle the explosive growth of urban populations and connected devices.
Article
A Comprehensive Survey on RF Energy Harvesting: Applications and Performance Determinantsmdpi.com
There has been an explosion in research focused on Internet of Things (IoT) devices in recent years, with a broad range of use cases in different domains ranging from industrial automation to business analytics. Being battery-powered, these small devices are expected to last for extended periods (i.e., in some instances up to tens of years) to ensure network longevity and data streams with the required temporal and spatial granularity. It becomes even more critical when IoT devices are installed within a harsh environment where battery replacement/charging is both costly and labour intensive. Recent developments in the energy harvesting paradigm have significantly contributed towards mitigating this critical energy issue by incorporating the renewable energy potentially available within any environment in which a sensor network is deployed. Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvesting is one of the promising approaches being investigated in the research community to address this challenge, conducted by harvesting energy from the incident radio waves from both ambient and dedicated radio sources. A limited number of studies are available covering the state of the art related to specific research topics in this space, but there is a gap in the consolidation of domain knowledge associated with the factors influencing the performance of RF power harvesting systems. Moreover, a number of topics and research challenges affecting the performance of RF harvesting systems are still unreported, which deserve special attention. To this end, this article starts by providing an overview of the different application domains of RF power harvesting outlining their performance requirements and summarizing the RF power harvesting techniques with their associated power densities. It then comprehensively surveys the available literature on the horizons that affect the performance of RF energy harvesting, taking into account the evaluation metrics, power propagation models, rectenna architectures, and MAC protocols for RF energy harvesting. Finally, it summarizes the available literature associated with RF powered networks and highlights the limitations, challenges, and future research directions by synthesizing the research efforts in the field of RF energy harvesting to progress research in this area.
Article
Recent progress in energy harvesting systems for wearable technologysciencedirect.com
The Wearable Energy Harvesters types, materials, and applications are reviewed. • The Comparison of Wearable Energy Harvesters are presented. • The Future Perspective of Energy Harvesting Systems for Wearable Technology are discussed.
Article
Advancements In Renewable Energy Harvesting Technologies For Sustainable Power Generationpropulsiontechjournal.com
The global imperative for sustainable power generation has driven relentless research and development in renewable energy harvesting technologies. This paper presents a comprehensive review of recent advancements in solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal technologies, analyzing their collective impact on the landscape of sustainable power generation. The exploration begins with an overview of renewable energy sources, delving into historical contexts and the current state of technology. Advancements in solar energy harvesting, including breakthroughs in photovoltaic and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies, are dissected in detail. The paper then shifts focus to wind energy, exploring innovations in turbine design and the significance of offshore wind farms. A comprehensive review of advancements in hydropower and geothermal energy extraction follows suit. The integration of multiple renewable sources into hybrid systems is discussed, highlighting synergies that optimize efficiency and reliability. Additionally, the paper addresses smart grids and energy storage systems as crucial components in overcoming intermittency challenges. The review concludes by identifying persistent challenges and proposing future directions for research and development in renewable energy technologies. By synthesizing these advancements, this paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on achieving a sustainable and resilient energy future.
Article
Advanced Energy Harvesting Technologymdpi.com
Article
Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting: A Comprehensive Review and Applicationsfse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl
This paper presents an overall review of Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting, starting with the importance of the abundance of mechanical energy that can be harvested into electrical energy, and how piezoelectric materials can be part of this achievement. A clear description of the piezoelectric phenomenon is intended to be described, with the different structural configuration that piezoelectric energy harvesting gives. An elaborate information about the different piezoelectric materials that we can find nowadays is covered, intending to present a wide overview about the actual status of piezoelectric materials. The many applications that piezoelectric energy harvesting can have are considered in almost all possible fields, giving a clear perspective of the present and future areas where mechanical energy can be harvested by piezoelectric materials. This work reviews recent literature in the field of power harvesting and provides the current status of energy harvesting and the multiples options where this can be applied.
Article
Recent Progress in the Energy Harvesting Technology—From Self-Powered Sensors to Self-Sustained IoT, and New Applicationsncbi.nlm.nih.gov
With the fast development of energy harvesting technology, micro-nano or scale-up energy harvesters have been proposed to allow sensors or internet of things (IoT) applications with self-powered or self-sustained capabilities. Facilitation within smart homes, manipulators in industries and monitoring systems in natural settings are all moving toward intellectually adaptable and energy-saving advances by converting distributed energies across diverse situations. The updated developments of major applications powered by improved energy harvesters are highlighted in this review. To begin, we study the evolution of energy harvesting technologies from fundamentals to various materials. Secondly, self-powered sensors and self-sustained IoT applications are discussed regarding current strategies for energy harvesting and sensing. Third, subdivided classifications investigate typical and new applications for smart homes, gas sensing, human monitoring, robotics, transportation, blue energy, aircraft, and aerospace. Lastly, the prospects of smart cities in the 5G era are discussed and summarized, along with research and application directions that have emerged.
Article
Roadmap on energy harvesting materialsiopscience.iop.org
Ambient energy harvesting has great potential to contribute to sustainable development and address growing environmental challenges. Converting waste energy from energy-intensive processes and systems (e.g. combustion engines and furnaces) is crucial to reducing their environmental impact and achieving net-zero emissions. Compact energy harvesters will also be key to powering the exponentially growing smart devices ecosystem that is part of the Internet of Things, thus enabling futuristic applications that can improve our quality of life (e.g. smart homes, smart cities, smart manufacturing, and smart healthcare). To achieve these goals, innovative materials are needed to efficiently convert ambient energy into electricity through various physical mechanisms, such as the photovoltaic effect, thermoelectricity, piezoelectricity, triboelectricity, and radiofrequency wireless power transfer. By bringing together the perspectives of experts in various types of energy harvesting materials, this Roadmap provides extensive insights into recent advances and present challenges in the field. Additionally, the Roadmap analyses the key performance metrics of these technologies in relation to their ultimate energy conversion limits. Building on these insights, the Roadmap outlines promising directions for future research to fully harness the potential of energy harvesting materials for green energy anytime, anywhere.
Article
Energy Harvestingsciencedirect.com
Energy harvesting (also known as energy scavenging) is the conversion of ambient energy present in the environment into electrical energy for use in powering autonomous electronic devices or circuits.
Article
What is Energy Harvesting? What are Energy Harvesting Challenges？orbray.com
Internet of things (IoT: devices that connect to the internet) and machine to machine (M2M: devices that connect to each other) devices are finding more and more use in our everyday lives. By installing sensors and transmitters in various everyday objects, we can collect and analyze types of data as never before. We can also control devices remotely or operate them without human interventions.
Article
Portable and wearable self-powered systems based on emerging energy harvesting technologynature.com
A self-powered system based on energy harvesting technology can be a potential candidate for solving the problem of supplying power to electronic devices. In this review, we focus on portable and wearable self-powered systems, starting with typical energy harvesting technology, and introduce portable and wearable self-powered systems with sensing functions. In addition, we demonstrate the potential of self-powered systems in actuation functions and the development of self-powered systems toward intelligent functions under the support of information processing and artificial intelligence technologies.
Article
Tidal current energy harvesting technologies: A review of current status and life cycle assessmentsciencedirect.com
• The current status of tidal current energy technologies is overviewed. • Technical challenges and trends of tidal current energy technologies are clarified. • Life cycle assessment can improve designs by reducing environmental impacts. • Future work of tidal current energy technologies and life cycle assessment are discussed.
Article
Wireless Power Transfer and Energy Harvesting: Current Status and Future Prospectsieeexplore.ieee.org
The rechargeable battery is the conventional power source for mobile devices. However, limited battery capacity and frequent recharging requires further research to find new ways to deliver power without the hassle of connecting cables. Novel wireless power supply methods, such as energy harvesting and wireless power transfer, are currently receiving considerable attention. In this article, an overview of recent advances in wireless power supply is provided, and several promising applications are presented to show the future trends. In addition, to efficiently schedule the harvested energy, an energy scheduling scheme in the EH-powered D2D relay network is proposed as a case study. To be specific, we first formulate an optimization problem for energy scheduling, and then propose a modified two stage directional water filling algorithm to resolve it.
Article
Powering the future: Advanced energy harvesting for loT devicestechxplore.com
Researchers have developed a high-performance energy management unit (EMU) that significantly boosts the efficiency of electrostatic generators for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This breakthrough addresses the challenge of high impedance mismatch between electrostatic generators and electronic devices, unlocking new possibilities for ambient energy harvesting.
