Science World Blog Growing Power Plants
Growing Power Plants
Last Updated (Wednesday, 21 April 2010 15:53) Written by Raymond Nakamura
Imagine plugging your microwave oven into your Geranium instead of a wall outlet. Talk about your green power.
Shocking News
That's still a long way off from current reality, but WonHyoung Ryu and his team have managed to draw electricity from living plant cells.
Light Work
From the standpoint of animals, the shocking thing about plants is how they can use photosynthesis to convert light energy into chemical energy. For animals, this usually means lunch.
Current Affairs
In this case, scientists slipped a nanoelectrode made of gold (an excellent conductor and good at getting stretched out) into chloroplasts where all the energy conversion takes place. They collected electrons energized by light to generate a tiny electrical current. When I say tiny, I mean it would take a trillion cells working for an hour to compare to a AA battery.
Reading Between the Ions
At first, I wondered how this was an improvement on potato clocks. They rely on ions in the potato (or other) juice and the properties of the metals to produce some current. Eventually, the potato dries out and you need another one.
Power to the People
In the case of the plug and grow scenario, you would get power on an ongoing basis from growing plants. At the moment, however, the cells only last an hour. But one day, we could have carbon-free power plants. I wonder how BC Hydro would respond to that kind of greenhouse effect.