Ultrathin unified harvesting module capable of generating electrical energy during rainy, windy, and sunny conditions

Energy harvesting technology, which collects natural energy and converts it into electrical energy, is a very important technology for the future energy industry. Solar cells are one of the most popular energy harvesting devices due to their high power and cost-effectiveness; however, because solar cells are highly influenced by weather conditions, they are not suitable for continuously generating electricity. In this paper we propose a new unified harvesting module (UHM), which is thin and lightweight, to harvest natural energy sources in various weather conditions. The UHM consists of two triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG), a transparent one for harvesting energy from raindrop impacts and one for harvesting wind energy, and a solar cell. This device can turn on 62 LEDs in real time without any energy storage device. Additionally, the UHM can be used as a self-powered weather sensor to detect rain drops, sunlight, and wind speed based on its electrical output. From this, the weather monitoring platform was subsequently demonstrated for use on a smart farm using a data acquisition system and LabVIEW software. This work proposes a new generator for not only harvesting natural energy, but also for broadening its application to the Internet of Things by developing practical usage of energy harvesting technology systems.