Generating Electricity from Plants – Go Greens

Imagine a portion of your electricity coming directly from plants that are growing on your roof or other parts of your property. Imagine if it were possible to literally grow your own energy. This might sound like science fiction but may be more common place in coming years if things go as planned.

Technology for Generating Electricity from Plants

A pilot facility has been developed on the rooftop of the Netherlands Institute for Ecology building and researchers involved with the project are currently hoping to find commercial partners. If the power generating green roof can be brought to market it is thought that it would be useful in many ways from generating power on a small local scale to larger scale energy production.
The traditional method of keeping the lights on by burning resources such as coal and other fossil fuels is adding pollution, waste, and detrimental effects to our planet. The observation of the negative effects these traditional energy sources produce along with the reality that these finite resources will not be around forever, aids in the push toward cleaner, renewable, and sustainable energy production. So how does producing energy from living plants work?

The Process of Generating Electricity from Plants

It begins with solar energy and photosynthesis. In this process, the plants receiving energy from the sun, produces organic matter of which about half of that organic matter is transferred into the soil via the plant root system. Once in the soil, naturally occurring bacteria break down the organic matter and in this process electrons and protons are produced as a waste product. The electrons can then be sent through a power harvester to produce electricity with a byproduct of water.

This system of electricity production has many applications especially in urban environments where the rooftops of houses and office towers are suitable for the system which provides electricity day or night. The very first building utilizing this “green electricity roof” in the world is currently functioning in The Netherlands producing enough power to charge a mobile phone. Currently, the pilot green-living-lab is about 50 square meters. With further research, better efficiency will be obtained to help offset home and office energy use.
We Can Change The Face of Earth with Generating Electricity from Plants

I was excited to learn about this new technology and I look forward to the day that this system is common place in our modern cities and even in the developing parts of the world. There are many without electricity and this could very well lead not only to a more sustainable source of energy but provide many with cheap energy anywhere on the globe.

Now that plants are proving an economical value in a totally new dimension I think it´s time to start growing as many plants as we could on every spot possible. Your back yard could be a great source of your summer time (at least) vegetables if you grow them organically yourself. And don´t worry about not being a farmer. Growing plants is so easy that a caveman HAS DONE IT thousands of years ago.