What is energy scavenging?
Energy scavenging is the process of converting ambient or everyday energy into usable power. From light summer breezes to people's footsteps to the kinetic energy of vacuums, the unused potential of "dissipated" energy can be captured to produce useful power. Through the piezoelectric, triboelectric, organic photovoltaics, and seebeck effects -- phenomena(s) which have been around since the late 19th century -- we are able to capture ambient energy.
Why is energy scavenging important?
Even though energy scavenging methods, currently, produce low power outputs sufficient for consumer electronics or LED lighting, the widespread, inexpensive, and easy to use nature of energy scavenging methods will make renewable energy a viable option everywhere. The integration of energy scavenging technology in household and urban areas will not only raise awareness on sustainability efforts but also fix the issue of limited renewable energy application. Like how droplets of water come together to form oceans, energy scavenging on the large scale will provide a significant portion of our renewable energy production.