applsci-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

The State of the Art in Energy Harvesting for IoT and WSNs (Second Edition)

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 2149

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Via Roma, 81031 Aversa, CE, Italy
Interests: analysis and design of analog circuits; RF communication circuits; nonlinear circuit theory; circuit simulation; wireless sensor networks and electronic circuits for energy harvesting
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the most challenging issues in the design of Internet of Things (IoT)-based devices and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is powering sensor nodes. Since there are usually many nodes distributed within a large area, the wiring is complex, expensive and completely impractical. Energy can be obtained from disposable batteries, but these have a high environmental impact, limited reliability and high maintenance costs. An alternative eco-friendly solution is energy harvesting supply systems, which can locally convert otherwise wasted forms of energy available in the surrounding environment into electricity. Energy harvesting systems generally comprise an energy harvesting device that scavenges energy from ambient sources and a power management electronic circuit that maximizes power extraction and optimizes power distribution. Many types of harvesting devices have been developed to scavenge energy from different sources, including the sun, wind, vibrations, rainfall, electromagnetic fields, and so on. Hybrid energy harvesting devices have also been created with the aim of scavenging energy from multiple energy sources by exploiting various energy conversion mechanisms. In addition to an energy harvesting device dedicated to energy conversion, an energy harvesting supply system also requires the integration of a power management electronic circuit into the device to provide voltage rectification, extract energy maximization and optimize power distribution in the sensor node.

Topics of interest for publication include but are not limited to:

  • Piezoelectric energy harvesting;
  • Electromagnetic energy harvesting;
  • Micro-wind energy harvesting;
  • Micro-solar energy harvesting;
  • Wearable energy harvesting;
  • Hybrid energy harvesting;
  • Circuits for energy harvesting;
  • Synchronized Switching Harvesting on an Inductor (SSHI);
  • Synchronous Electric Charge Extraction (SECE);
  • Maximum power point tracking techniques;
  • Low-power electronics.

Dr. Alessandro Lo Schiavo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • piezoelectric energy harvesting
  • electromagnetic energy harvesting
  • micro-wind energy harvesting
  • micro-solar energy harvesting
  • wearable energy harvesting
  • hybrid energy harvesting

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

41 pages, 1151 KB  
Article
Photovoltaic Prototype with Internet of Things Access for Charging Low-Power Devices
by Vicente Raya-Narváez, Juan Domingo Aguilar-Peña, Leocadio Hontoria-García and Catalina Rus-Casas
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(12), 5906; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16125906 - 11 Jun 2026
Viewed by 38
Abstract
This paper presents the design, implementation, and experimental validation of a portable photovoltaic charging station with IoT-based monitoring for autonomous low-power applications. The system integrates a 120 W photovoltaic module, LiFePO4 battery storage, MPPT regulation, DC/AC conversion, and an ESP32-S3-based acquisition unit [...] Read more.
This paper presents the design, implementation, and experimental validation of a portable photovoltaic charging station with IoT-based monitoring for autonomous low-power applications. The system integrates a 120 W photovoltaic module, LiFePO4 battery storage, MPPT regulation, DC/AC conversion, and an ESP32-S3-based acquisition unit connected to a cloud platform for real-time telemetry. Electrical and environmental variables were recorded to evaluate energy balance, conversion losses, State of Charge evolution, and load compatibility under different seasonal operating conditions. Field tests showed that under high-irradiance summer conditions, the prototype supplied multiple laptop loads for approximately 4.5 h with stable operation. In contrast, winter trials revealed a structural energy deficit equivalent to 120% of the initial 24 Ah storage capacity, mainly due to reduced irradiance and cumulative conversion losses ranging from 15% to 25%. Based on the experimental data and deterministic energy-balance modelling, an optimized configuration using a 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery bank and MPPT regulation was assessed through deterministic energy-balance modelling, thus reducing the required State of Charge to 28.8% under the analyzed operating profile. The results demonstrate the feasibility of a low-cost, IoT-enabled photovoltaic platform for renewable energy harvesting, autonomous power supply, and real-time performance assessment. Full article
13 pages, 11525 KB  
Article
Off-the-Shelf Power Management Circuits for Low-Power Thermoelectric Generators: Alternatives, Limitations, and Interconnection
by Filippo Leoncini, Mohamad Ridwan and Ferran Reverter
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(12), 5803; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16125803 - 9 Jun 2026
Viewed by 151
Abstract
In the field of power management circuits (PMC) for low-power thermoelectric generators (TEG) intended for autonomous sensors, this article experimentally evaluates the alternatives commercially available. Considering their limitations in terms of minimum input voltage and power efficiency, this article also proposes and experimentally [...] Read more.
In the field of power management circuits (PMC) for low-power thermoelectric generators (TEG) intended for autonomous sensors, this article experimentally evaluates the alternatives commercially available. Considering their limitations in terms of minimum input voltage and power efficiency, this article also proposes and experimentally characterizes a circuit topology that combines and interconnects two different PMC alternatives so as to achieve the benefits of both. Thanks to this interconnection, the resulting circuit can operate from a low input voltage (to be precise, an open-circuit voltage of the TEG equal to 40 mV), which is really attractive for TEGs under low thermal gradients, with a satisfactory power efficiency (i.e., up to 78%). Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 7936 KB  
Article
Energy Harvesting from Clustered Piezoelectric Beams for Aircraft Health Monitoring Systems
by Sadia Bakhtiar, Sayed N. Masabi, Tianhui Li, Jan Papuga, Andrew West, Jingjing Jiang and Stephanos Theodossiades
Appl. Sci. 2026, 16(7), 3115; https://doi.org/10.3390/app16073115 - 24 Mar 2026
Viewed by 1426
Abstract
Energy harvesting has emerged as a promising solution for powering aircraft structural health monitoring (SHM) systems by exploiting ambient vibration energy. This work presents a novel clustered piezoelectric energy harvester (CPEH) designed to enable autonomous sensing and wireless data transmission in aircraft structures. [...] Read more.
Energy harvesting has emerged as a promising solution for powering aircraft structural health monitoring (SHM) systems by exploiting ambient vibration energy. This work presents a novel clustered piezoelectric energy harvester (CPEH) designed to enable autonomous sensing and wireless data transmission in aircraft structures. Aircraft sections experience complex, multiple vibration modes during flight; however, the proposed harvester is specifically designed to exploit the oscillatory motion of the vertical tail unit (VTU) of a VUT-100 Cobra aircraft during the cruise phase. The energy harvester employs a clustered piezoelectric cantilever configuration incorporating magnetic stiffness nonlinearity, which enhances vibration-induced strain and enables effective frequency tuning. The nonlinear magnetic interaction broadens the operational bandwidth and improves energy conversion performance under low excitation amplitudes. The system is tuned to operate over a broadband frequency range of 110–130 Hz, with optimal performance achieved at acceleration amplitudes of less than 0.5 g, corresponding to the measured VTU vibration levels during the cruise phase of the flight. An experimental prototype was tested in the laboratory under aircraft cruise-phase vibration conditions, successfully achieving maximum power of 0.041 mW at optimum resistance of 390 KΩ and 5.45 mJ of stored energy in a 1000 µF capacitor within 10 min, confirming the feasibility of the proposed harvester for aircraft SHM applications. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop