Rainfall energy harvester

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed study on the harvest of the energy contained in raindrops by means of piezoelectric transducers. The energy harvester has the role of a electric source, able to recharge storage devices of small electronic components, such wireless sensors, by using the vibrational energy released by the drops hitting the transducer, reducing in such a way the chemical waste of conventional batteries. In technical literature diverse studies agree on the level of suitable generated voltage on the electrodes of a piezoelectric transducer subjected to rainfall, but a complete characterization on the supplied power is still missing. This work, also to limit optimistic forecasts, takes into account the behavior of the transducers in different scenarios: subjected to real and artificial rainfall, standalone or in parallel configuration, in conventional geometries, due to the commercial format or in customized shape, free to move or with an imposed optimal deflection.