Over the last decade, energy harvesting has seen significant growth as different markets adopt green, sustainable ways to produce electrical energy. Even though costs have fallen, the embedded computing and internet-of-things community have not yet widely adopted energy harvesting-based solutions. This is partly due to a mismatch between power density in energy harvesters and electronic devices which, until recently, required a battery to be functional. This mismatch is especially accentuated in indoor environments, where there is comparably less primary energy available than in outdoor environments. In this talk, I will focus on photovoltaic harvesting, which has little requirements and a high energy density. Furthermore, I will present a design methodology based on source-load decoupling that can optimize energy flow in dynamic environments. To demonstrate its general applicability, I will present studies on the availability of indoor-based energy and a batteryless smartcard designed for efficient operation using only indoor lighting to sense environmental data and emit Bluetooth beacons.

Key Learning Points:

• Energy Harvesting Technologies
• Maximum Power Point Tracking for Photovoltaic Cells
• Cold Start of Harvesting-Based Systems
• Low Power System Design
• Batteryless Sensing Systems