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Electricity can be harvested from trees
Researchers have discovered a way to plug into the electrical power generated by trees.
Children who have tried the potato or lemon battery expeniments know that an electrical current can be generated by creating a reaction between the food and two different metals.
After spending the summer surveying trees, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) discovered that big leat maple trees generated a steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts. By adding a voltage boost converjer, the team managed to obtain a usable voltage of 1.1 volts, enough to run low-power sensors.
A team member admits that "tree power" isn't as practical as solar enery, but believes that the system could be scaled-up as a low-cost option for powering tree sensors that help detect environmental conditions or forest fires.