Taking a look at the basic architecture for energy generation, the goal is to extract the maximum amount of energy from various sources and use it to power various devices. TI’s strength lies in power management, microprocessors, radio, and signal conditioning devices. The goal of the bq25504 is to work with a wide range of harvester, storage and load technologies. In considering energy harvesting, one needs to focus on the power requirements of the intended application system.  First of all, a good understanding of the energy source is needed. How much power can be expected?  Is it random or consistent?  Next, the average power requirements and peak power requirements of the application need to be determined.  And finally, the operating life of the application should be determined. Does it need to last “forever” or does it need an extended run time? If operation is required indefinitely, the average power generated by the harvester must, at a minimum, be equal to the average power consumed by the application. The power consumption and efficiency of the power management solution must be factored in as well, since it will impact both the amount of power that can be harvested, and the efficiency of the power transfer. From the above requirements, the size of the storage element and the energy harvester can be calculated and the power management and energy harvesting interface can be chosen.