Title :
SOLARCAP: Super capacitor buffering of solar energy for self-sustainable field systems
Author :
Fahad, Amal ; Soyata, Tolga ; Wang, Tai ; Sharma, Gaurav ; Heinzelman, Wendi ; Shen, Kai
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Abstract :
Intelligent systems like automatic highway traffic management, area surveillance, and geological activity monitoring require substantial data collection and processing in the field. Energy self-sustainability is a critical foundation for successful field systems that are away from the power grid infrastructure. Instead of the conventional battery-based energy storage, this paper argues that the super capacitor buffering of solar energy (SOLARCAP) has the advantages of precise energy lifetime awareness, low maintenance, and operational robustness. By designing and developing a prototype implementation of the circuitry required for management and harvesting of energy, we demonstrate a SOLARCAP system that ensures safe device operation within the permitted voltage range.
Keywords :
energy harvesting; power grids; solar power; supercapacitors; SOLARCAP; area surveillance; automatic highway traffic management; battery-based energy storage; data collection; data processing; energy harvesting; energy lifetime awareness; energy management; energy self-sustainability; geological activity monitoring; intelligent systems; operational robustness; power grid infrastructure; safe device operation; self-sustainable field systems; solar energy; super capacitor buffering; Capacitors; Energy storage; Inductors; Power conversion; Prototypes; Voltage control;
Conference_Titel :
SOC Conference (SOCC), 2012 IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Niagara Falls, NY
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-1294-3
DOI :
10.1109/SOCC.2012.6398354