energy-constrained environments. The lifetime of the common battery-powered WSNs could be short, which causes higher maintenance and operation costs [2]. To make the system more prominent, and to achieve fully monitored wireless sensors for a long time, energy harvesting has been identified as a useful technique to harness environmental forces (e.g., sunlight, wind, vibrations, RF signal) in order to harvest an unlimited energy source into WSNs [3; 4]. When we speak about energy harvesting (EH) for wireless sensor nodes, we not only refer to addressing the issues related to power consumption in a WSN, but introduce an additional era of self-sustainable/green networking. Research work in this area is developing as fast as possible because an energy harvesting system enables wireless sensor nodes to increase their lifetime and minimize dependence on finite energy resources [5]. The hybrid EH-WSNs/CR-WSNs have attracted much attention, as they not only improve network security but also increase the spectrum efficiency in wireless sensor networks. [6]. Despite significant advancements in EH-WSNs, a number of challenges still remain. However, these also bring us to a few of the challenges, i.e., harvested energy is variable and the requirements for the optimization of protocols for energy management as well as building strong security mechanisms to combat potential threats are significant in such kind of energy-limited environment [7]. Integrating EH mechanisms with cognitive and cooperative communication schemes, however, makes things even worse and calls for promising remedies to maintain continuity during different network operation levels. EH-WSNs have gained significant attention as an essential solution for overcoming the energy constraints typically faced by traditional WSNs [8]. The concept behind EH-WSNs is to harness ambient energy from the environment such as solar, thermal, mechanical vibrations, or radio frequency (RF) signals to power the sensor nodes [9], thereby extending their operational lifetime and reducing dependence on traditional battery sources. This advancement overcomes hurdles with applications that require infrequent battery replacement or charging, highly desirable in settings where battery replacement is impractical, such as in remote or hazardous locations. Gradually, energy harvesting technologies have matured to provide prospective applications in healthcare monitoring, smart cities, environmental sensors, industrial automation, etc. As a result, EH-WSNs are playing a vital role in scenarios that necessitate continuous operation and sustainable data gathering, thereby increasing the significance of green and energy-efficient communication systems. For example, energy harvesting can be applied to industrial control systems, robotic systems, and other domains where autonomous and energy-efficient operations are essential [10; 11]. The optimization of energy and spectrum, two limited resources, is the common goal of EH-WSNs and cognitive radio (CR) technologies [12]. CR improves spectrum efficiency by identifying underutilized frequency bands and permitting their opportunistic use, thereby enabling dynamic spectrum access [13]. EH-WSNs also seek to maximize the use of harvested energy by adjusting sensor node operations according to power availability. The combination of these technologies creates a powerful framework for effective spectrum utilization and sustainable energy management. Furthermore, within EH-WSNs, physical layer security (PLS) is essential to guaranteeing secure communication [14]. Instead of depending only on computationally demanding cryptographic techniques, PLS adds an extra layer of security in energy-constrained networks, where nodes may be more susceptible to assaults, by taking advantage of the physical characteristics of wireless channels, such as noise and fading. Because PLS offers confidentiality, integrity, and authentication without putting a significant computational strain on EH-WSNs, it is a perfect fit for these networks.