A future where street lights, connected to forests, drawing their power from trees isn’t a figment of imagination anymore.
Future Street Lights Draw Their Power From Trees
Dutch designer Ermi van Oers has created an off-grid Living Light that harnesses microbial energy from living plants to produce its own electricity and light up the ambiance. The chemical energy released by the plant during photosynthesis is converted to electric energy by microorganisms in the lamp, a model that could replace the conventional grids with a more sustainable microbial energy system, notes Dezeen. Van Oers and the team are scaling up the system to amplify the energy output so that one day the technology could be employed to transform forests into power plants for smart cities.
Ermi van Oers has created a lamp that uses a living plant to generate its own electricity – and plans to scale up the technology to power entire smart cities. Presented at Dutch Design Week, the Living Light uses microorganisms to convert the chemical energy that a plant naturally produces during photosynthesis into an electric current. Van Oers designed the lamp to be fully self-sufficient to function off-grid rather than be plugged into an electrical socket. She has already begun to apply the technology – known as microbial energy – to public spaces and is collaborating with Rotterdam's municipality to light up one of its parks. "The potential is huge," she told Dezeen. "Street lights could be connected to trees. Forests could become power plants. Rice fields in Indonesia could produce food and electricity for the local population."
Glow-in-the-dark trees could replace street lights, says Daan Roosegaarde
Future Where Street Lights Drawing Their Power From Trees
LED Lights Light Up When Touching The Leaves
The Living Light encases a plant inside a glass tube. As the plant photosynthesizes, it releases organic compounds into a soil chamber below. The organic matter is broken down by bacteria fostered through a microbial fuel cell – a system that mimics bacterial interactions found in nature. When this happens, electrons are created and transported away from the soil. The electric current is passed along a wire and fed into a ring fitted with LEDs—these light up when a user touches the plant's leaves.
Van Oers claims that future cities could be powered exclusively by plants in a similar way by replacing the electric grid with a more sustainable microbial energy system. Sustainability was a major theme at this year's Dutch Design Week, where designers experimented with waste materials and energy alternatives in response to the growing threat of climate change. This topic was also addressed in a talk hosted by Dezeen as part of our Good Design for a Bad World initiative.
Plants Are Part Of Our Energy System
Van Oers believes there are lots of opportunities for designers to change the status quo. "I hope we come to a point where every plant pot is provided with this technology, and we don't know any better than that plants are part of our energy system," she said. "Nature will get a higher economic value, and we will start making more green places so that biodiversity can flourish while lowering greenhouse gas emissions at the same time." However designer acknowledges that the technology is still new and that the Living Light can only produce a small amount of energy in its current form.
Recommended: Agricultural Applications For Plants Warn Of Water Shortages
The plant photosynthesizes around the clock. But the lamp takes a day to produce enough energy for half an hour's charge, although this can vary depending on the plant's condition. Van Oers first developed the technology with a research group called Plant-e.
Living Light was presented at Veem during Dutch Design Week, which took place in Eindhoven last month. Dezeen hosted five Good Design for a Bad World talks during the week-long festival on pollution, politics, and refugees.
Before you go!
Recommended: Sustainable Future High Tech Internet Of Plants Netherlands
Did you find this an interesting article, or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below.
We try to respond the same day.
Like to write your article about plant power?
Send your writing & scribble with a photo to [email protected], and we will write an interesting article based on your input or subscribe.