In recent years, energy harvesting, in the case of piezo materials, deriving energy from a kinetic energy source, has become the focus of much research. Various piezo materials are used in these applications and may include ceramics, films, and others. We at APC are very excited by the possibility of energy harvesting using piezoelectric ceramics. On the other hand, we do remain somewhat skeptical of the use of bulk piezoelectric ceramics in large scale energy harvesting applications given the limited energy output of piezoelectric ceramics, the potentially cost prohibitive nature of using piezoelectric ceramics in any large scale energy harvesting application, and the fact that piezoelectric ceramics contain large quantities of reacted Pb(lead). When looking at piezoelectric ceramics for the purpose of energy harvesting, we remind our customers that while piezoelectric ceramics do provide high voltages they provide a very limited amount of actual power. The power produced by piezoelectric ceramics must be accumulated before it can be used to power any electronic device. APC has provided piezoelectric ceramics for many energy harvesting applications. In these instances, APC provides piezoelectric ceramic elements manufactured from lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Of the PZT materials that APC offers, we would recommend APC 850 as it tends to have the best combination of piezo properties for energy harvesting applications.