Home » Energy » How to Stop Disposable Batteries and Foster the Energy-Harvesting Era

How do we deal with the toxic waste in batteries? The solution is energy harvesting from ambient sources.

The first battery was invented back in 1800. More than 200 years later, we still use non-rechargeable batteries, even though they have negative practical and environmental implications. Those drawbacks could soon be a thing of the past as society shifts toward more sustainable and efficient ways to obtain energy for low-power devices. Such a shift would make our life easier, as there would be no need to change batteries. Industries would particularly benefit, as the cost of changing batteries on an industrial scale can be quite high.

Here are just a few downsides to using disposable batteries:• They take up a lot of space in devices. If devices were without batteries, they could be made smaller. Alternatively, that freed space could be utilized for additional features.• They run out of energy at the most inconvenient times.• It takes time and financial means to replace batteries, which is especially complicated and costly for large industries in which thousands or more batteries need to be replaced.• They can cause data loss in smart devices such as trackers, sensors, and monitoring devices.• Batteries that contain heavy metals pollute the environment if not properly disposed of.

The number of IoT devices worldwide is growing rapidly, and so is the volume of batteries needed to support this growth. With an expected 78 million batteries to be discarded daily by 2025 and 100 billion wasted AA batteries in 2050 (equivalent to 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools), there is clearly a growing environmental problem for which IoT companies must take responsibility. But how do we deal with such an immense amount of toxic waste?

10/17-19 EAC