Energy Harvesting Markets Analysed: Creating a $4.4 Billion Market in 2021

By Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx,
r.das@IDTechEx.com, http://www.idtechex.com/

In 2011, IDTechEx research finds that the amount of money spent on energy harvesters will be $0.7Bn, with several hundred developers involved throughout the value chain. Energy harvesting is the process by which ambient energy is captured and converted into electricity for small autonomous devices, such as satellites, laptops and nodes in sensor networks making them self-sufficient. Energy harvesting applications reach from vehicles to the smart grid.
The majority of the value this year is in consumer electronic applications, where energy harvesters have been used for some time. In 2011, 1.6 million energy harvesters will be used in wireless sensors, resulting in $13.75 million being spent on those harvesters.
At the current growth rate, it is expected that a market of $4.4 Billion ten years from now will emerge - that is the money spent on the energy harvesting component alone. That includes 250 million sensors powered by an energy harvester (at an average price of $6 per harvester), and by then numerous consumer electronics devices including laptops, ebooks and cell phones.
For more information see: http://www.idtechex.com/research/reports/energy-harvesting-and-storage-for-electronic-devices-2011-2021-000270.asp