Using Solar Energy Harvesters in Engineering Education

Abstract

This article presents our experience in integrating solar harvester systems into engineering training. The increased capacities of supercapacitors, as well as their advantages over ordinary batteries, together with harvester systems, make them extremely sought after and used by researchers and engineers to implement various projects. Following this trend, we have integrated into the students' practical classes laboratory exercises in the engineering disciplines “Microcontroller Design” and “Microprocessor Technology”, software and hardware methods for reducing the consumption of wireless sensor nodes and using solar energy harvesters as energy sources for sensor nodes. The article focuses on experimental studies of different harvesters - LTC 3588 and BQ25570, collecting energy from different photovoltaic panels. Students can design and implement autonomous wireless sensor nodes to be powered by solar energy harvesters. In this way, they acquire skills and knowledge to implement low-energy wireless sensor nodes without harmful chemical batteries. A good knowledge of solar harvester systems leads to an increase in the quality of engineering education.