On intelligent energy harvesting

TL;DR

This paper explores how intelligent, reversible interventions can improve energy harvesting efficiency, surpassing diode-based methods that have inherent power dissipation limits, through theoretical principles and a case study.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using reversible energy-conserving operations to enhance energy harvester performance, outperforming traditional diode-based interventions.

Findings

Reversible interventions can outperform diode-based methods in certain regimes.

Diode-based interventions have a fundamental power dissipation limit.

Case study demonstrates practical potential of the proposed approach.

Abstract

We probe the potential for intelligent intervention to enhance the power output of energy harvesters. We investigate general principles and a case study: a bi-resonant piezo electric harvester. We consider intelligent interventions via pre-programmed reversible energy-conserving operations. We find that in important parameter regimes these can outperform diode-based intervention, which in contrast has a fundamental minimum power dissipation bound.