Electric Field Energy Harvesting From High-Voltage Power Lines for Consumer Batteryless Wireless Sensor Networks

Leakage electromagnetic energy widely exists in the vicinity of high-voltage power lines. This work proposes a comprehensive electric field energy harvester, which can drive a commercial consumer-oriented Zigbee-based Wireless Sensor Platform (WSP). Electric field energy harvesting is selected as its energy density is about 60 uJ/m3 under 525-kV power lines, twice higher than that due to the magnetic field. To this end, a capacitive coupling model is studied to evaluate electric energy harvesters placed under high-voltage power lines, which is proven with good accuracy. A complete energy harvesting platform is developed, which contains a two plates-based energy harvester, a bridge rectifier, a storage capacitor, and an ultra-low-power comparator. Experimental verification shows that the proposed batteryless wireless sensing platform can operate every 40 s corresponding to 3.3 mJ of energy collected in this period under the 525-kV power lines. This electric energy harvesting approach is believed to have great potential for energizing wireless sensor networks under high-voltage power lines.