The environmental benefits of energy harvesting are proving to be greater and more widespread than originally realised. Most importantly, the runaway use of small batteries is leading to uncontrolled disposal of poisons such as lithium and highly alkaline electrolytes.

In industry, replacing the increasingly vast number of batteries is extremely expensive in both labor cost and materials. Energy harvesting is increasingly the only way forward.

More than ten years of extra life
Energy harvesting is providing at least ten years longer life than batteries used on their own. Indeed, batteries in electronic products rarely last longer than two years and there are many applications where they are thrown away in weeks or months, which is why they hang from the check-out rack at seemingly every store with a cash register.

With 15 to 20 years life frequently offered for all the leading forms of energy harvesting, the environmental savings from less batteries being disposed is considerable. Avoiding recharging batteries every few months also saves on the cost, energy and pollution involved in visiting devices.

North America leads the world in energy harvesting in aerospace and military applications, from piezoelectric vibration harvesting for sensors in helicopters to all those photovoltaic panels on satellites. Europe leads in industrial applications, using thermoelectrics, electrodynamics, photovoltaics and piezoelectrics.

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