Auto-Switching Self-Powered System for Efficient Broad-Band Wind Energy Harvesting Based on Dual-Rotation Shaft Triboelectric Nanogenerator

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based self-powered system for wind energy harvesting introduces a desirable solution to alleviate the expanding energy supply concerns in the development of the internet of things. In this work, an auto-switching self-powered system based on a dual-rotation shaft TENG (D-TENG) is reported to effectively harvest wind energy over a broad-band wind speed (2.2-16 m s(-1)). The D-TENG is designed in a concentric dual-rotation shaft structure, in which two independent TENGs with different shapes, sizes, and arm lengths of wind cups are rationally coupled. The integration of the two TENGs with varied structural parameters achieves mutual compensation of their own merits, enabling the whole system to have preferable aerodynamics and high energy conversion efficiency over a broad range of wind speeds. Moreover, an electromagnetic generator (EMG) with the same energy collection module is also fabricated for a comparison with TENG in the start-up properties and average output power. Furthermore, a packaged self-powered system is demonstrated for simulated wind energy harvesting, while the charging characteristics are also discovered. The proposed TENG renders a more efficient technique for energy harvesting and greatly expands its potential in the large-scale wind energy harvesting that can be attributed to the multi-stage strategy.

Automated summary

A self-powered system based on a dual-rotation shaft TENG is introduced in this study, which effectively harvests wind energy over a broad range of wind speeds and is compared with an electromagnetic generator. By optimizing the structure and parameters of TENG, high energy conversion efficiency and good aerodynamics performance are achieved.