Batteries


of batteries is a global one. Each year, Americans throw away more than three billion batteries, totalling 180,000 tons of hazardous waste, according to environmentalist groups. According to EnABLES, an EU-funded project whose mission is to “make batteries outlive the devices they power,” nearly 80 million batteries powering IoT devices will be discarded every day by 2025, if no alternatives arise. That number is even greater according to Mike Hayes, head of ICT for energy effi ciency at the Tyndall National Institute in Ireland, who projects that, “in the trillion sensor world predicted for 2025, we are going to be throwing over 100 million batteries everyday into landfi lls” unless we fi nd a longer-lifespan solution.


An alternative solution


To meet IoT device deployment projections, reap the benefi ts of this sprawling connectivity, and capitalize on a massive market, we must fi nd a way to sustainably power trillions of wireless endpoints. Simply designing batteries with longer lifespans is one option, although that will still end with dead batteries in landfi lls. Rechargeable batteries are another option, though this simply swaps maintenance for replacement;


the owner still has to


do something. In both cases, the issues


of power delivery style and device design constraints go unaddressed. To truly address the trio of problems presented by batteries to wireless devices and their designers, we need to move onto a new method of power supply. Fortunately, the energy we need is already available all around us.


Kinetic energy harvesting As solar panels, wind turbines, and


hydroelectric dams prove,


energy is available


for us as long as we have the technology to capture it. At the small- scale device level, the sun, wind, or water require too much infrastructure to provide enough power at the low target costs and small sizes required, but we can rely on something else: motion. Kinetic energy harvesting involves electromagnetic induction wherein a kinetic force, like the push of a button or the roll of a wave, moves a small magnet through a metal


coil. In adherence to Faraday’s Law, this action creates an electromagnetic charge, which is enough to power an action like sending a transmission. The larger the charge, the greater the range, reliability, and functionality of the data transmission. Energy harvesting is not necessarily a new concept to the wireless device industry but innovations in electromagnetism, microelectronics, power conversion circuitry, and nano- and pico-power technology have only recently reached the point where kinetic energy harvesting components represent a viable alternative to battery power for small- scale IoT devices. Their reliance on their surroundings means they don’t need recharge or regular replacement, and their lifespans can last millions of activations. We have a long way to go before batteries are phased out from our IoT devices, but if we want to speed up deployment, we need to strip out the things holding back device performance, design, and sustainability. That means saying goodbye to energy from batteries and instead sourcing it from the devices’ own surroundings.


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