Bio-inspired technologies for enhanced wave energy converter: A review

Over the past two decades, significant growth in global energy consumption has driven the exploration of clean and renewable energy sources, among which ocean wave energy stands out as a vast and largely untapped resource. In addition to traditional electromagnetic generators, triboelectric nanogenerators and piezoelectric power generation technologies have emerged as viable options for low-frequency wave energy harvesting. This review demonstrates that bio-inspired designs substantially improve energy conversion performance, with representative cases achieving up to 30%–40% enhancement in capture factor or several-fold increases in power density over conventional counterparts. By categorizing and quantitatively analyzing bio-inspired wave energy harvesting devices into four types—bio-inspired electromagnetic, triboelectric, piezoelectric, and hybrid systems—this work not only summarizes the current state-of-the-art but also critically assesses key performance metrics, identifies persistent challenges in scalability and durability, and outlines future research directions. The quantitative analysis presented in this review underscores the significant potential of bio-inspired strategies in advancing wave energy harvesting toward practical and competitive renewable energy solutions.