“Energy harvesting” refers to the capture of ambient energy, its conversion to usable form and preservation for future use. The most common examples of energy harvesting include solar-powered calculators, wristwatches powered by body movement, and bicycle dynamo powered by the motion of the wheel.

A new study from ABI Research finds that market for energy harvesting systems for machine-to-machine (M2M) devices totaled just $3.82 million in 2009, and that it will reach $418 million by 2016.

If energy harvesting development kits are included, the 2009 market exceeded $12.7 million, and will reach approach $480 million by 2016, says the report titled, “Energy Harvesting for M2M Devices.”

Energy harvesting has attracted more investments over the last decade, thanks to its environmental friendliness and its ability to power devices without electric wires. Energy harvesting also extends the life of batteries or eliminates them entirely. It also decreases maintenance of these machines.

According to Larry Fisher, research director of NextGen, ABI Research’s (News - Alert) emerging technologies research incubator, because ambient power is scavenged in milliwatts (mW) or even microwatts (µW), energy harvesting is best used for small, wireless, autonomous devices that can function on an ultra-low-power basis.

Some of the best applications of M2M energy harvesting, according to Fisher, will be Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), which are the next step in the evolution of automating buildings, utilities, factories, homes and transportation systems.

“Wireless sensors can be spread throughout a home or building, in factories or on bridges or other structures to monitor environmental or other conditions; if they’re powered by energy harvesting, there are no batteries to replace and no labor costs associated with replacing them,” Fisher added.

According to Fisher, the market for energy harvesting is still in the very early stages of development. However, R&D and prototyping of systems continue to prove their reliability and economic value compared to battery-powered systems.

According to industry analysts, M2M market is estimated to total $18 billion in the next five years as device totals surge from 75 million to over 225 million. This indicates strong growth opportunity for Energy Harvesting market as well.