Hydro-Piezoelectricity: A New Approach to Self Powered, Remote Data Acquisition Systems

The solicitation addresses the need for an electrical generator to be used for continuously supplying power to a rechargeable battery or capacitor which powers a remote data acquisition system completer with an RF data link for data telemetry. Further, for compelling reasons, it is desired that the recharge energy be acquired locally from the environment, i.e. either surface wave energy or water currents. The proposed solution utilizes the concept of Hydropiezoelectricity whereby thin plastic sheets of piezoelectric material (PVDF) are employed to directly convert the large available mechanical energy to electrical power for recharging the storage device. The proposed Phase I effort consists of analysis and simulation tasks designed to determine both the technical and economic feasibility of the approach in typical shallow and deep ocean environments. A laboratory demonstration of the approach will be provided using power generation modules that are being developed by OPT as part of its efforts to exploit the technology commercially as a source of primary energy.