Enabling Battery-Less Wireless Sensor Operation Using Solar Energy Harvesting at Locations with Limited Solar Radiation

Environmental monitoring applications demand wireless sensor networks to operate over a long period of time. Although energy consumption of these systems has been tremendously reduced, lifetime of sensor nodes is still limited by the capacity and lifetime of batteries used as energy sources. Energy harvesting, and in outdoor deployments particular, solar energy harvesting becomes a suitable way of powering wireless sensor nodes as their power consumption decreases. In this paper we address the feasibility of battery-less operation of wireless sensor nodes using solar energy harvesting at locations where the amount of solar radiation is severely limited and seasonal variations are large. We present two circuit architectures optimized for low energy leakage and evaluate their performance based on data gathered in a deployment during winter in Sundsvall, Sweden. We show that both architectures allow operation of sensor nodes even in the darkest period of the year. Furthermore comparisons between the two architecture designs are provided.