Electricity From Trees? | Natural Oregon

Electricity From Trees? | Natural Oregon: "That tree in your yard is more than just a life sustaining, oxygen producing, carbon sequestering object of beauty. It’s also, of all things, a battery.

Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered they can stick electrodes into trees, create a circuit, and operate electrical devices.
Electrical engineers Babak Parviz and Brian Otis and undergraduate student Carlton Himes (right to left) demonstrate an electrical circuit that runs entirely off tree power. Courtesy University of Washington.

Electrical engineers Babak Parviz and Brian Otis and undergraduate student Carlton Himes (right to left) demonstrate an electrical circuit that runs entirely off tree power. Courtesy University of Washington.

But don’t expect electricity generating trees farms anytime in the near future. The amount of power the researchers can draw from a tree is awfully small. UW student Carlton Himes hooked some nails into the trees on campus and found they generate a small stream of only a few hundred millivolts.

“Normal electronics are not going to run on the types of voltages and currents that we get out of a tree,” according to UW electrical engineering professor Babak Parviz. But, he says, the system developed by the UW team could be used to operate things like low power, remote tree sensors that might be used to detect environmental conditions or forest fires.
This custom circuit is able to store up enough voltage from trees to be able to run a low-power sensor. Courtesy University of Washington.

This custom circuit is able to store up enough voltage from trees to be able to run a low-power sensor. Courtesy University of Washington.

Another possibility, the amount of electricity produced by a tree might tell us something about its state of health. Parvis says, “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.”"