Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) have discovered that there is energy in trees. The researchers found that trees contain a small amount of energy in measurable quantities and enough to run an electronic circuit according to results to be published in an upcoming issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Transactions on Nanotechnology.
"As far as we know this is the first peer-reviewed paper of someone powering something entirely by sticking electrodes into a tree," said co-author Babak Parviz, a UW associate professor of electrical engineering.
Using nails, a voltmeter, a boost converter and a Big Leaf Maple tree, UW researchers were able to generate a few hundred millivolts of energy. Their custom boost converter works for input voltages of as little as 20 millivolts (a millivolt is one-thousandth of a volt), an input voltage lower than any existing such device and produces an output voltage of 1.1 volts.
Although tree power is unlikely to replace solar power for most applications, the system may provide a low-cost option for powering tree sensors that could be used to detect environmental conditions or forest fires. The electronic output could also be used to gauge tree health.
"It's not exactly established where these voltages come from. But there seems to be some signaling in trees, similar to what happens in the human body but with slower speed," Parviz said. "I'm interested in applying our results as a way of investigating what the tree is doing. When you go to the doctor, the first thing that they measure is your pulse. We don't really have something similar for trees."
Via: UW News
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