Energy harvesting power supply for an autonomous environmental sensor node

Energy harvesting allows to harvest energy from the environment in order to enable elimination of the batteries from small electronic devices i.e. wireless sensor nodes. It allows autonomous operation for low-power sensor nodes. This paper presents a solar energy harvesting power supply for an environmental sensor node. For this purpose, the sensor node hardware and its current consumption are presented, the specifications and the calculations for its energy budget are explained. The energy harvesting power supply consists of a solar panel, dc-dc converter and a Li-ion battery shunt charger. The characteristics and power generation are measured and presented.