A company based out of the Netherlands
has introduced a new project in which it can use plants to power Wi-Fi
connections, charge cellular phones and even turn on streetlights.
Do
you want to use your lawn to charge your electric car? Use your green
roof to power your house? Would you like to see each wetland and rice
paddy field in the world turned into a power plant without harvesting
the plants? Plant-e is a company that develops and produces products in
which living plants generate electricity.
In November, more than 300 LED lights
were illuminated by a Dutch company that makes electricity from
harnessing the power of living plants.
This was the first commercial
installation for Plant-e, a company that also sells mobile chargers, and
rooftop electricity modules fueled by the byproduct of photosynthesis
in plants.
Plant-e’s co-founder and CEO, Marjolein
Helder, believes that this technology could be revolutionary, especially
if implemented on a larger scale. Capturing the energy in wetlands and
rice paddies could bring power to some of the world’s poorest places.
The company founders also envision a world where people can use their lawn or garden to charge their electric vehicles.
Here’s how Plant-e says it works:
Via photosynthesis a plant produces
organic matter. Part of this organic matter is used for plant-growth,
but a large part can’t be used by the plant and is excreted into the
soil via the roots. Around the roots naturally occurring micro-organisms
break down the organic compounds to gain energy from. In this process,
electrons are released as a waste product. By providing an electrode for
the micro-organisms to donate their electrons to, the electrons can be
harvested as electricity. Research has shown that plant-growth isn’t
compromised by harvesting electricity, so plants keep on growing while
electricity is concurrently produced.
Dutch company Plant-E introduced a new project called “Starry Sky”.
A Dutch company harnesses electricity
from living plants, and then uses it to power cell phone chargers,
Wi-Fi hotspots, and now over 300 LED streetlights in two sites in the
Netherlands. Plant-edebuted its “Starry Sky” project in November 2014 at
an old ammunition site called HAMbrug, near Amsterdam, and plant power
is also being used near the company’s headquarters in Wageningen.
Many researchers are looking for ways to
basically generate electricity from thin air, and this idea is similar.
Plant-e’s founders looked to the natural world and asked where lost
energy could be harnessed and used by humans. They found it in the
byproduct of photosynthesis in plants. Plant-e’s plant power modules
could mark the dawn of the next revolution in clean energy.
Harvesting energy from growing plants has come a long way since middle
school science fair projects featuring clocks run by potatoes. Plant-e’s
approach is built on the same principle, but is radically different
because it does not require damaging the plant in order to harness its energy. Not only can electricity be generated without harming the plant, but the amount of electricity is actually quite substantial.Related: Biophotovoltaic moss tables generates electricity through photosynthesis
For the Netherlands streetlight projects, Plant-e’s electricity generation process
involves plants growing in two-square-foot plastic containers. Plants
undergo photosynthesis, essential turning solar power into sugars. As
they grow, plants
always produce more sugars than they need, and the excess is cast out
through their roots into the surrounding soil and break down into
protons and electrons. Plant-e’s system uses electrodes in the soil to
await the breakdown of this plant waste, thus conducting electricity.
Company founders hope that their
technology will someday be used to provide power in poor areas of the
world where plant life is abundant, such as in rice paddies or near
wetlands. If they can figure out how to do this in a cost-effective way,
it means that this new clean energy could bring electricity to people
who have never had it which, by current estimates, is nearly 25 percent
of the world’s population.
