A Feasibility Study in Energy Harvesting from Piezoelectric Keyboards

The Need For A New Energy Source

We have become reliant on the consumption of energy. In 2012 alone, it is understood humans used 37.7x10¹⁰GJ (International Energy Agency, 2014) (Figure 1). Currently, 81.7% of the total energy consumption is obtained from fossil fuels, the main types being coal, oil and natural gas (Figure 2).

Figure 1.

World energy consumption (source: International Energy Agency, 2014)

Figure 2.

Energy supply by fuel type (source: International Energy Agency, 2014)

Our rate of consumption cannot be sustained as relying on fossil fuels are non-renewable and our reserves are rapidly declining (Höök, & Tang, 2013). Further to this, our reliance on them is negatively contributing towards global climate change due to their release of carbon dioxide when being burned (Vernon, Thompson, & Cornell, 2011). Statistics released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) demonstrate how human energy consumption continues to increase, which could become problematic in the current climate according to Shafiee and Topal (2009) who predicted all fossil fuels will run out by 2112.