Electricity in Trees Can Power a Circuit

New converter may turn tree power into useful products.

SUMMARY: There is enough electrical power in trees to power an electronic circuit, U. of Washington researchers have discovered. Their report will 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 study last year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that plants can generate a voltage of up to 200 millivolts. Those researchers now are working with a company to exploit this new power source. The UW team took the next step by building circuits to run off of this energy and were successful in running a custom circuit solely off tree power.

Co-author Carlton Himes, a UW undergraduate student stuck nails into trees and connected a voltmeter. He found that bigleaf maples, common on the UW campus, could generate steady voltage up to a few hundred millivolts. The UW team then developed a boost converter, a device that takes the power of a low incoming voltage and stores it to increase its output. The device works with input voltages of as little as 20 millivolts (20 one-thousandths of a volt). Though very small, the output voltage can run low-power sensors.

Unlike the well-known potato and lemon experiment which uses two different metals to create a current, in the tree experiment the same metal was used for both electrodes. While unlikely to replace solar power for most applications, tree power, according to Parviz, might provide a low-cost option for powering tree sensors to detect environmental conditions or forest fires or to gauge a tree's health.

(Picture of bigleaf maple tree leaves from Wikimedia Commons)

To read the entire article, click on this link to US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT.

COMMENT: The more we learn about nature, the more amazed we are at how marvelous it all is. Is tree power the result of random processes or is it even more reason for accepting the existence of an intelligent Creator?

To be sure, the discovery of electricity in trees may turn out to be not be all that important. Still I can't help but speculate if it could indeed lead to bigger things. Currently many people are worrying about what the use of fossil fuels may be doing to our environment or whether we may some day run out of nonrenewable resources such as coal or petroleum. If God so desires, we conceivably soon might be able to add tree power to solar power and wind power as an endless, natural way to meet our need for energy.

God is the One who provides for all our needs and cares just as He does the lilies of the field and the birds of the air (Matthew 26:25-29). He holds us in His hand, and whatever He plans for us in the future, it will be for our good. Surely His plans for our eternity, everlasting life in heaven for believers in Jesus, are as firm as anything could ever be. It is interesting to note that apparently God will directly supply all our energy needs in heaven. (Revelations 21:23)

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QUESTION OF THE DAY

Where is Denali National Park?

Denali National Park is located in Alaska and is also known as Mount McKinley (picture from Wikimedia), the tallest mountain on the continent of North America. Denali is a native word meaning "the great one."

Sources: USA Weekend (September 18-20, 2009) and Wikimedia

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