Piezoelectric transducers are increasingly being used to harvest energy from environmental vibrations in order to either power remote sensors or charge batteries that power the sensors. In this paper, a new voltage compensation scheme for high-voltage-based (> 100 V ) energy harvesting is introduced, and its fundamental concepts, as well as the operation details, are elaborated. This scheme, when applied to the voltage inversion method [synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (SSHI)], provides an increase of over 14% in harvested power when compared to the parallel inversion method (parallel SSHI) alone and more than 50% in the case of series inversion method (series SSHI). Second, tapered cantilever beams were shown to be more effective in generating a uniform strain profile over rectangular and trapezoidal beams if they are precisely shaped, resulting in a significant increase in harvested power over available methods in the literature from laboratory experimental tests. In addition, a simplified method to design such a beam is introduced. Finally, a field test of the proposed tapered beam is conducted by using a dozer for earth-moving applications, and experimental results are discussed.