Use of a piezocomposite generating element for harvesting wind energy in an urban region

Purpose Current technology uses large windmills that operate in remote regions and have complex generating mechanisms such as towers, blades gears, speed controls, magnets, and coils. In a city, wind energy that would otherwise be wasted can be claimed and stored for later use. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a smallscale windmill that can work in urban areas. Designmethodologyapproach The device uses a piezocomposite generating element PCGE to generate the electric power. The PCGE is composed of layers of carbonepoxy, lead zirconate titanate PZT ceramic, and glassepoxy cured at an elevated temperature. Previous work by the authors had proved that the PCGE can produce high performance energy harvesting. Findings In the prototype, the PCGE performed as a secondary beam element. One end of the PCGE is attached to the frame of the device. Additionally, the fan blade rotates in the direction of the wind and hits the other end of the PCGE. When the PCGE is excited, the effects of the beam's deformation enable it to generate electric power. The power generation and battery charging capabilities of the proposed device were tested, and the results show that the prototype can harvest energy in urban regions using minor wind movement. Originalityvalue The paper presents a prototype that uses a PCGE for harvesting wind energy in urban areas. The PCGE has the potential of being used as a generator for harvesting energy from sources such as machine vibration, body motion, wind, and ocean waves. The PCGE design is flexible the ply orientation and the size of the prepreg layers can be changed. Generating elements with a specific stacking sequence can be used for scavenging energy in a wide range of applications such as network sensors, portable electronics, and microelectromechanical systems.