Energy harvesting on railway tracks: state-of-the-art

Abstract

With the growing need for alternative energy sources, research into energy harvesting technologies has increased considerably in recent years. The particular case of energy harvesting on railway tracks is a very recent area of research. This paper deals with the development of energy harvesting technologies for railway tracks, identifies the technologies that are being studied and developed, examines how such technologies can be divided into different classes, and gives a technical analysis and comparison of those technologies, using the results achieved with prototypes.