**1. Introduction**

Currently, the expression Internet of Things or simply IoT has been broadly used. However, the actual meaning of IoT, in the sense to help to understand how it could change the world, could be extracted as compared to the Internet revolution.

The Internet revolution was the development of a global network where data are originated by people (typing, pressing a record button, taking a digital picture or scanning a bar code)

#### © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

using connected computers [1, 2]. For its turn, the IoT revolution has its premise that any object or thing (like a light lamp, a door, a refrigerator, a garment, etc.) can directly originate and send data to the Internet without any human interaction. For example, a sensor in a connected light lamp may automatically order a new one when it is near the end of life. In short, the Internet is based on human-entered data and the IoT on Thing-entered data.

power tools, meters and data loggers and remote sensors), batteries enable portable use [3] and free the device from power cords and also from being near to an energy power socket. However, the batteries in these devices are discharged and then recharged periodically, meaning that the portability feature takes the fixed costs of replacement or of recharging as a

Energy Resources in Agriculture and Forestry: How to be Prepared for the Internet of Things…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74940

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*Nevertheless, batteries do not free the device users from power cords since they still need them to connect the battery charger to energy power socket. In this sense, charged batteries works as an invisible cable or, better, as an energy transportation system since the energy source is distant from the device. Ever the most modern wireless charging station based on Inductive Power Transfer* [42] *need its base to be* 

Batteries are devices that convert the chemical energy contained in their active materials, immersed in an electrolyte solution, directly into electric energy by means of electrochemical oxidation–reduction (redox) reactions [4]. They come in two different forms, namely, disposable or primary batteries and secondary or rechargeable batteries [5]. The reactions are reversible in secondary batteries so that discharging the batteries returns the electrodes to

Many different battery chemicals are used as active materials, namely, lead, nickel, cadmium, lithium, zinc, manganese, mercury, and others and as electrolyte, namely, acid, potassium hydroxide, organic carbonates, and others [4, 5]. In addition, it is important to observe that electrolyte can be in liquid, gel (which means that it can leak) and solid form [4], and those

All parts of a battery, as shown in **Figure 1**, are made of pure or compound chemical material where some can be toxic, environmentally unfriendly, or not sustainable. As a result, if batteries are not properly disposed, then their toxic material can leak and contaminate the soil and water, and some of the materials can accumulate into the surrounding environment. Some of

Researchers are continually inventing lower cost and longer life battery chemistries and as batteries become integral part of high-volume products, economies of scale will reduce costs [3]. However, splitting the battery market into small-battery and of large-battery relating it to the IoT industry and the electric vehicle (EV) industry, respectively, it is expected between 22 billion and 30 billion of connected devices ("Things") by the year 2020 [7] and, for electric cars, it may achieve globally between 9 million and 20 million by the year 2020 [8]. That means that billions or trillions of small-batteries and millions of large-batteries will be manufactured, deployed and the wasted ones may be dumped on the nature if not properly recycled. The worst scenario may be one of the IoT worn-out batteries, since the electric vehicle's wear-out battery regulations tend to be extremely rigorous with the carmakers holding responsibilities for them, which differs from the IoT scenario, where responsibility holds on individuals.

In order to show a fair comparison between the IoT and EV battery scenarios, we can normalize the expected number of batteries by the year 2020, using the standard 18,650 cells as

the cell has a diameter of 18 mm, 65 indicates the height of the cell is 65 mm, and 0 indicates

O4

) battery where 18 indicates that

disadvantage.

*plugged to an energy power socket.*

batteries are packed in metal and plastic cases or containers.

these materials can also contaminate humans and the wildlife.

normalization base. That is a standard type of Li-ion (LiMn<sup>2</sup>

their pre-charged states [5].

As the world population is estimated to reach 8 billion by 2020 and supposing that each individual may be related to about five different connected Things<sup>1</sup> , we can compute 40 billion of connected Things by this time. However, the IoT revolution does not relate only to people, but all kinds of enterprises and industries (e.g., all products of a given industry may be connected). In this sense, that number could reach trillions.

From the energy point of view, deploying IoT devices in urban or industrial environments is not a dramatic problem since chemical batteries are easily available and electrical outlets are almost everywhere to recharge them.

Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that this huge number of connected Things would need batteries to work and, more importantly, chemical batteries wear out, even the rechargeable ones, and, if not properly disposed, they can be harmful to the environment.

From the point of view of urban life, IoT is an extraordinary technology despite the chemical batteries issue where massive recycling campaigns worldwide or even recycling laws can minimize its damage to nature.

From the point of view of non-urban life, as rural, forest and other natural environments, the IoT will certainly be a very interesting technology. We have to be carefully prepared to take advantage of such technology because it could be hard or impossible to take back batteries for recycling from battery-powered IoT devices deployed directly into the environment.

From this perspective, the future may bring an Internet of Natural Things (IoNaT). For example, a Thing could be a tree, a fruit, a submerged stone in a river, etc. However, IoNaT presents some challenges as radio frequency (RF) communications in the presence of vegetation and powering the electronics of the Things using batteries. Considering the battery issue, deploying them directly into the nature is certainly not an environment-friendly option. The question is how to power the IoNaT using a non-battery approach.

In this chapter, we suggest different and innovative natural, easily available, energy sources and the main processes to harvest them. The use of these natural and revolutionary technologies may ensure that monitored data could be obtained in a sustainable way.
