A review of energy harvesting techniques for low-power IoT and wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Limited battery life remains a major challenge in deploying the internet of things (IoT) and wireless sensor networks (WSN), particularly for long-term, low-maintenance applications. Energy harvesting has emerged as a promising approach that utilizes ambient energy sources to enable the autonomous operation of sensor nodes. This paper presents a comprehensive review of energy harvesting techniques for low-power IoT and WSN systems, including solar, mechanical vibration, thermal, and radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting. The review covers the working principles, performance characteristics, advantages, and limitations of each technique, and provides a quantitative comparative analysis based on key parameters such as power density, conversion efficiency, environmental dependence, and application suitability. The results indicate that no single energy harvesting technique is universally optimal, as performance strongly depends on environmental conditions and application-specific power requirements. This study contributes by providing a structured comparative framework and a systematic analysis of performance limitations and design considerations to support the selection of appropriate energy harvesting methods. Furthermore, hybrid energy-harvesting systems and the integration of efficient power-management strategies are identified as key enablers for improving energy reliability, extending system lifetime, achieving sustainable, maintenance-free IoT, and WSN deployments.